One's Own Worth
by FoxBlitz
Summary: AU. It would have been so simple for the Water Tribe siblings to not awaken Aang. As the Avatar continues to slumber, watch the world follow a path under a different hero.
1. Ch1 A Twist of Fate

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Avatar the Last Airbender.

A/N: Alrght then, so I rewrote the first chapter a bit. Mostly just the part concerning Zuko. Several people didn't seem to care for Jee and his crew turning evil all of a sudden and Zuko and Iroh somehow being able to take on an entire ship crew all by themselves... (Zuko-haters...) Anyways, I rewrote it so that Jee and his crew would remain loyal and an OC would take the fall. Added some more friction, you know. Also hopefully brought the sue-trait level of Zuko down a little as well. In addition to all that, as I look back at the rewrite, I kinda like it better than the original myself. So thank you Caellach Tiger Eye and Blue Flyhight for your honest reviews and suggestions to make the story better. As for my silent readers, PLEASE REVIEW. It helps me to know how my story is being received and if I need to rethink my approach. Also tweaked the character interactions a bit and adjusted the other chapters accordingly. Well enough of that, please enjoy the story.

* * *

**Introduction Summary**

It was only an element of luck that caused the Water Tribe siblings to find the Avatar. But what if luck wasn't with them that day? As the Avatar continues to slumber, the world continues along a different path to salvation. A hero realizes his real destiny. A warrior proves his strengths. A healer discovers her fighting ability. A vigilante learns to forgive. An heiress fights to verify her worth. A seamstress finds herself wrapped up in it all. And a mystical, all-mighty being slumbers peacefully at the bottom of the frozen sea.

* * *

**A Twist of Fate**

"It's not getting away from me this time," smirked Sokka as he aimed his spear over the side of the canoe and into the water. "Watch and learn Katara, this is how you catch a fish."

Rolling her eyes at her brother, Katara noticed the outline of a fish in the waters behind the boat. She shot a quick look at her brother who was still focusing intensely on the waters in front of the canoe. She took off one of her gloves and started to feel the water around the fish.

Katara was still a beginner in terms of waterbending and her confidence with her art was still unsteady, but she never passed up an opportunity to practice to get better. She could feel the push and pull of the water as she started to cause ripples in the water. She breathed out to ready herself and began to use a rising motion with her hand to raise up the water around the fish.

She gasped in excitement when a water bubble containing the fish broke up from the water and she began using both hands to control the water and bring the fish closer to the canoe. "Sokka! Look!"

"Shhh…Katara! You're going to scare it away!" he whispered back to her exclamation. "Hmm...I can already smell it cooking."

Katara continued to bend the fish closer. "But Sokka! I already caught one!"

The fish was in his sights, all focus was on the fish in front of him. Sokka drew back his spear to strike it into the water, when he suddenly found himself drenched and heard his sister cry out, "Hey! Ah!" She watched as the fish she caught dropped back down into the sea and swim away.

Sokka placed his spear down in the canoe and turned to face his sister. His expression was not amused. "Why is it that whenever you play with magic water, I get soaked?"

His sister sighed in exasperation. "It's not magic. It's waterbending. And it's…"

She was cut off by her brother. "Yeah, yeah, it's an ancient art unique to our culture, blah, blah, blah." He squeezed some of the water out of his wolf tail haircut. "Look, I'm just saying that if I had your powers, then I'd keep my weirdness to myself."

Katara crossed her arms in defiance. "You're calling me weird?" She smirked. "I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the water." Her brother was currently doing just that. He shot her a nasty glare just before the canoe began to pick up speed really fast.

Sokka quickly turned his attention back to the front of the boat. A rapid current had formed and was dragging the canoe towards a whirlpool of crashing ice. He grabbed a paddle and began paddling furiously to the right, trying to divert the direction of the canoe. "Watch out!" he heard his sister cry out and just barely managed to avoid a small ice patch that would have blindsided him otherwise. The patches were getting closer together now and things weren't looking good.

"Go left! Left!" he heard his sister cry out again. He considered going right just to spite her for giving him directions, but something in his brain managed to click and he swallowed his pride just this once before he switched to the left and dodged a clashing of two ice patches by a hair's breathe.

Things started to settle down after that and the waters calmed back down. "Whew," breathed out Sokka in success. He leaned back in his seat for a quick respite. Glancing at his sister he noticed her relieved expression at the avoidance of the collision. It would have most likely resulted in the destruction of the canoe and then the siblings would have been struck in the middle of the sea with no way back to the village.

Sokka glanced down at the fish basket that they had brought with them. It was only about half full, but he thought that after the close encounter, it was probably time to head back. "So…wanna head home?" he asked. She nodded. Sokka gripped the paddle once more and began the slow journey back to the village.

* * *

It had been a full week since Zuko had arrived at the South Pole. For a full week he searched tirelessly through the ice unsuccessfully for his prize. A full week that turned up nothing but water and snow as far as the eye could see.

Zuko slammed his fist down on the ship railing as he stood at the front bow. "Where are you Avatar!" he shouted into the winds.

Sighing, Iroh walked up from behind his nephew and placed a gentle hand of his shoulder. "Nephew, I believe it is about time that we give up on this venture." A couple of the crew on board turned their heads at this. "We've scoured the four Air Temples. We've searched the entirety of the Northern, Western, and Southern parts of the Earth Kingdom. And now we have searched the South Pole. The only places left to look are at the North Pole and the Eastern parts of the Earth Kingdom."

"But that's because those areas are still hotspots of resistance!" countered Zuko. And knowing his luck, that's probably where the Avatar was hiding out.

"I realize that nephew," said Iroh understandingly. "But the Avatar has been missing for a hundred years. Your father, your grandfather, even your great grandfather have all searched for the Avatar and failed. There is no assurance that even if we could search the North Pole and the Eastern Earth Kingdom that we would find the Avatar."

Zuko was trying to stem his fury. He disliked it when uncle's conversions turned in this direction, but as he was quickly running out of spots to search, his uncle's words were starting to have a greater and greater influence on him. They started to sound more correct each and every time. He slammed his fist down on the railing in frustration again. Iroh continued, "Even without searching in those hotspots though, I'm fairly certain that the Avatar is not there."

"And why not?!" demanded Zuko as he faced his uncle once more. "How could you possibly know that without checking for certain?"

Iroh sighed to himself. "Lack of rumors and gossip, my prince," he informed him. "If the Avatar was in such populous locations, then we would surely hear of rumors or sightings. He's the hope of the people to stop this war. No one would be able to stop themselves from trying to share that hope with one another."

Zuko turned back to look over the ice and snow littering the South Pole. This scene stretched for miles in every direction. No one would be able to live out here on their own for long. A couple of arctic gulls flew by overhead. "It's been three years uncle" replied Zuko. "I've come so far in searching for the Avatar and now you just want me to give that all up?"

Iroh nodded solemnly. Zuko wanted nothing more than to return home and restore his honor in his father's eyes. And to do that meant nothing short of capturing the Avatar, the last possible threat to the Fire Nation. But how could he do that when the annoying pest wouldn't even bother crawling out of whatever rock he was hiding under? Maybe there was some measure of truth to what his uncle was saying, but he had to see for himself. He would find a way to search for the Avatar even in the enemy strongholds. Maybe then, his father would see that he did everything that was humanly possible to find the Avatar and could prove that the supposed 'Hero of the World' didn't exist anymore. Maybe that would satisfy his father enough to allow him to lead a campaign to finish the war and prove his worth.

The prince sighed as he continued to look out over the freezing sea. "I'll need to think about this uncle. It's my mission to find and capture the Avatar. I can't just stop all of a sudden. But for some annoying reason, what you're saying doesn't sound completely wrong anymore either. Still, I won't admit defeat yet. I will figure out a way into the North Pole and the Eastern Earth Kingdom's Ba Sing Se to search. This is too important a mission to leave to the reliance of rumors and false sightings."

Iroh nodded in response to his nephew. This was probably the best he could hope for from the teen right now. The anger at being banished was still there. The desperate need for acceptance from a father who would not give it reflected in the prince's eyes. At least Zuko was starting to become more open to the words of guidance from his uncle now; more than he was at the start of this foolhardy errand three years prior anyways.

Lieutenant Zekk, who had joined after the crew reassignments at the last port, approached the two. "Prince Zuko, sir. There's a matter that I wish to discuss with you about my fellow Lieutenant."

Zuko turned to face Lieutenant Zekk. "Do you mean Jee? Well go on then."

"Actually sir, the matter is a little more grave than that. We should probably go somewhere more private to discuss this," requested Zekk in a lower tone of voice this time.

Iroh raised his eyebrow in suspicion. "Well then, perhaps I should go as well. I've known Jee for several years. Perhaps I can help settle this matter."

Zekk hesitated for a moment before saying, "I would be honored if you might assist in this matter."

The group proceeded below deck and began heading towards one of the conference meeting rooms. Zekk remained silent the entire walk down the walkway. Zuko didn't seem to notice but Iroh had been reading situations for years and something wasn't sitting quite right with him.

Reaching the conference room, Zekk opened the metal door and bowed respectfully. "After you Prince Zuko…"

The young prince was about to walk into the room, when Iroh placed a hand on his shoulder. "Just a moment nephew, you wouldn't mind if I went in first?"

Looking at his uncle weirdly, Zuko let the old General walk past him and into the room. Five blasts of fire immediately zeroed in on Iroh as he walked into the conference room, but the Dragon of the West's reactions hadn't dulled even in his old age. He instantly put up a ring of flame to intercept the surprise attacks. "Uncle!" shouted Zuko as he raced to the old man's side.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Iroh coldly as he glared at Zekk while remaining in his bending stance and Zuko dropping into one. The sound of cold, hard metal could be heard slowly being drawn in several parts of the conference room. Iroh's eyes swept the area to see four crew members now wielding weapons in addition to the five firebenders also in the room.

"This, Dragon of the West," started Zekk confidently as he walked into the room shutting the metal door behind him and securing the lock, "is us as a loyal crew carrying out the orders of the Firelord. Banishment wasn't the only thing he had on his mind towards his son. Should the prince even begin considering to quit his mission, then he did not learn anything from our Agni Kai and you all are ordered to kill him on the spot," recited Zekk. "These are orders from the Firelord himself to the more loyal portion of this crew. The Fire Nation cannot afford to allow weakness to rule it."

"My father wants me dead?!" questioned Zuko in shock as his bending stance faltered a bit.

"I'm just a soldier," answered Zekk as he dropped into a firebending stance as well. "Orders are orders. I don't know the why, but I don't particularity care. The Firelord was very clear. You deviate, you hesitate, you falter; you die. The crown will go to someone more worthy of it, like your sister."

"I knew that my brother had very little love for his son, but to go so far as to order for his death!" Iroh cursed. The wizen old man's mind was in a whir as he desperately tried to calculate their odds against such numbers. It didn't look good. '_Keep them talking_,' Iroh's mind shouted at him. "Is this why my crew has started to get slowly reassigned over the past few months? Did my brother think that my crew was getting to be too loyal to me instead of him?"

"Right on the money for both accounts!" replied Zekk with a smirk. "For being such an accomplished General, it sure took you long enough to realize this was happening! Your former crew is now outnumbered three to one and even if they try to stand with you, any resistance won't be able to last long. But enough talk!" Zekk launched an intense fire blast at Zuko.

The prince just barely managed to dissipate the flame as it was launched from such a close range. Without pause, Zekk was upon the teenage prince.

Several crew members descended upon Iroh in a fury. They knew that the Dragon of the West was capable even in his old age and they didn't want to let him start to build up momentum in the battle. Iroh ducked under the thrust of a short sword aimed at his head as he shot a quick glance at his nephew, who was on the defensive against Zekk and two other crew members that had joined the Lieutenant. They needed to get out of this room as fast as possible.

Iroh twisted out of the away of another short sword, disarming the assassin with a well placed elbow strike to the man's wrist. He grabbed the outstretched arm and chucked his opponent into two others that were trying to approach from the side. He shot another look at his nephew, who was still near the door that they had entered. '_Good_,' he thought as he smoothly deflected another fireball. Centering himself and gathering his breath; his arms shot out with a large firewall at the majority of his opponents and kept up the intensity of the wave as he pushed backwards to the door. Dropping his attack, he unsecured the door lock and threw it open. "Nephew!" he shouted.

Zuko dodged a fire punch from Zekk by twisting slightly to the side and countered with a round kick engulfed with flames. The impact knocked Zekk against the wall, but two of his lackeys jumped into the fray to cover him. Zuko leapt into a spin avoid a flaming fist and leg from each of his two new opponents at they attempted to take out both his head and his legs at the same time. He brought up his arms in a cross over his face to shield himself from a series of fireballs that followed. He heard his uncle shout, "Nephew!" and spied the old General standing in the doorway. When the next fireball came at him, he threw out his arms as he deflected it and brought them back together quickly in a clap of fire that threw his two opponents on the defensive. Keeping his guard up as he reached his uncle, he jumped backwards out of room while still facing inwards to watch for any other attacks.

A dagger flew through the smoke and impaled itself deep within his left shoulder. Crying out in pain, Zuko noticed Zekk's face smirking in triumph at him through the smoke. Iroh slammed the door shut and melted the lock shut with a blast of fire. "Agni!" cursed Zuko as he wretched the dagger out of his shoulder and threw the weapon to the floor. As Iroh turned to inspect the wound, they heard footsteps racing down the walkway. Falling back into bending stances, they remained firm as Jee and three other members of their crew approached them in a rush.

"Sir!" reported Lieutenant Jee with urgency in his voice. "The crew is mutinying! There are soldiers shouting that everyone loyal to the Firelord should kill Prince Zuko. They say that he has turned traitor and plans to sell out war secrets to the Water Tribes here in the South! Those that have been sailing with you all these years General Iroh realize that this is nonsense. There's no way that either of you would do something like this. However, all the new blood that joined due to the crew reassigning at the last port are being swayed over. Fights have broken out all throughout the ship as these insurgents continue spreading their lies!"

"We know," replied Iroh as he dropped his stance and gestured to Zuko's bleeding shoulder.

"Sir!" stressed Jee as he reached into the soldier pouch on his uniform and pulled out a roll of dressings. Jee had been a soldier for years and this old veteran was always prepared. Within moments, he had dressed Zuko's shoulder wound. "That's the best we can do right now. I don't know if the infirmary has been compromised, but we better not risk it. Let's get you two to the mess. We've secured it from these upstarts and are using it as a make-shift base of operations."

An explosion of fire erupted down the hallway as a gaping hole appeared in a portion of the wall and several of the assassins that had attacked Iroh and Zuko flooded out. Jee moved in between the fire nation royals and the enemy. "Shan! Get the General and the Prince out of here!" Jee jumped back a step as he deflected a wave of fire and countered with two fireballs of his own.

Zuko felt his uncle tug him lightly on his good shoulder. With the initial assassination attempt over, his emotions had had a chance to overtake him. He had lost himself in thought at the realization that soldiers had just tried to kill him under his father's orders. "Nephew! We need to listen to Jee and get to the mess hall!" Snapping out of his reverie, Zuko shook his head clear. It was time for action, he could think later. Shan, Zuko, and Iroh took off down the walkway as Jee and his other two men were systemically retreating one step at a time, while launching single bursts of fireballs to buy time for the fire royals to get away.

Tearing down the walkway, a door burst open and a soldier jumped out of the one of the rooms with a short sword raised over his head. Zuko caught the man's hands before he could bring his weapon down and shoved him back into the small room he had attacked from. Grabbing the door, he shut it and melted the lock. Iroh pushed past his nephew and with a drive of fire, assaulted another group of insurgent swordsmen that were charging at them. "This way!" urged Shan as he diverted the group down another walkway that led to the mess hall.

The trio threw open the doors to bear witness to a group of their supporters tied up in the corner of the room and several insurgent firebenders facing them. The earlier group of swordsmen was quick to cover the way they had come from. All three of them dropped into bending stances. "Surrender," one of the enemy firebenders ordered.

Shan glanced nervously between the fire nation royals and the overwhelming number of insurgents. Without warning, his switched his fists from facing the enemy to the back of both the fire royals' heads. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I've got a wife and kid back home. I can't die here…"

Iroh stared back at Shan with disappointment as he gave the man a seldom nod of understanding. He lowered his bending stance, while placing his hand on his nephew's arms to lower his stance as well. The leader of the insurgent firebenders smirked as his men took Iroh and Zuko into custody. The group walked onto the ship deck where Zekk awaited them.

"Looks like victory is mine, General Iroh," he grinned in satisfaction. "You'll be thrown in jail for collaborating with a traitor along with everyone else foolish enough to side with you." He turned to Zuko. "My orders are to kill you here." A ball of flame sparked to life in his right hand.

However, a stream of fire flew down from the observation deck to collide with the two guards that secured both Iroh and Zuko as Jee stood with tall with his arm outstretched from the attack. The Dragon of the West capitalized instantly on the reversal of the situation and twisted back to launch a massive fireball at the barrels of blasting jelly that were stored next to the catapults on the deck. Zuko spun around with an arcing wave of fire to push back the insurgents as the barrels exploded. A large blast of fiery destruction swept across the deck as it blew a large hole on the top of the ship. Racing towards the lifeboats, Zuko paused only to grab a single broadsword that was lying at his feet, dropped by one of the guards that Jee had torched. Nearing the crafts and leaping into one, Zuko disabled the engines of the other lifeboats with fireballs. Iroh shot a look back at Jee who was still standing on the observation deck and launching fireballs at the insurgents to add to the confusion. Their eyes locked and a nod of understanding crossed between them. There was no time for Jee to reach them and flee as well. He would stay with his crew.

"Time to go uncle," announced Zuko as he dropped the lifeboat into the water and started the engine to get away. Suddenly the two heard the humming of multiple engines. Two lifeboats circled from the other side of the main ship. "Shit," cursed Zuko. "They're using the crafts on the other side of the ship. Get us to shore uncle! We're at a disadvantage here."

The pursuing life boats were gaining on the pair as they attempted to reach shore. "We need to move faster!" shouted Zuko. He turned to the back of the boat. "Hang on uncle!" Zuko raised his hands to shoot out a constant burst of fire to propel the lifeboat faster. Precious few seconds were gained before the firebenders on the other lifeboats began to copy the prince's methods. However, the shore was close and they managed to reach it mere moments before their pursuers.

Iroh and Zuko leapt off the lifeboat and onto the shore to face the continued threat. Lieutenant Zekk walked off one of the lifeboats flanked by several benders and soldiers. He was clearly not happy. "Alright you troublesome brat! This was supposed to be a simple matter to off you and toss your lifeless body overboard into the freezing arctic sea. I never would have guessed that things would work in your favor this much. You did well, but I can see the exhaustion in your bodies. You can't continue this useless struggle much longer."

"Watch me," countered Zuko as he charged at Zekk.

"Zuko! Stop!" demanded Iroh in a panic. Zuko just barely managed to notice several javelins being flung from the soldiers behind Zekk as the man smirked at the success of his taunt. The prince wouldn't be able to dodge in time. His eyes widen as death in the form of wood and steel rained down upon him. Suddenly something slammed into his side and Zuko felt himself flung into the ground several feet away.

The prince turned to look back and gasped at what he saw. His uncle was kneeling on the ice with a javelin protruding from the left side of his gut. The Dragon of the West coughed up some bright red blood that stained the pure white snow on the ground. He was panting in pain heavily. "No," whispered Zuko quietly. "NO!" He rushed to his uncle's side.

He eased the old General to lie on his back. His eyes kept staring at the wound. He was no medic. He had no clue how to help his uncle. "It's okay," reassured Iroh. "Go! Get out of here. Run, run and live." Iroh grimaced in pain.

"No uncle!" Zuko held the old General's hand. He was in tears. "I won't leave you!"

"As touching as this moment is, I've still got a job to do," taunted Zekk as he waved three of his men forward to finish the deed.

Zuko's head spun around sharply. "You…" he growled out in a low threatening voice. He grasped the single broadsword he had on him and started to walk towards the insurgent commander. The three swordsmen that Zekk had signaled forward attacked the exiled prince in a tri formation. Zuko cut them down without mercy, his eyes never leaving Zekk as his steps slowly moved forward rhythmically. This unnerved the remaining enemy force to no end.

A silence fell over the group. Men kept charging Zuko only to be defeated without causing the angered prince to falter in his steady walk towards Zekk. "Kill him! Kill him!" demanded Zekk frantically. When no one answered his call he looked around to see himself the only one, besides Zuko, that was still alive and standing. He involuntarily took a couple of steps backwards.

"Hey, hey, wait! Don't kill me!" he pleaded. "I was only following orders."

Zuko would not be detoured on his march. Stream was rising from his footsteps in the snow. All he could see was red and the face of the man who dared to harm his uncle. Zekk cowered back in fright.

The prince was almost upon him when suddenly pain shot through his body and he dropped to his knees in agony. He drove his broadsword into the ice to keep himself upright. He clutched his shoulder in pain. Breathing was getting harder and harder to do. He was starting to feel incredibility hot, much hotter than a firebender normally feels. What was happening?!

Zekk dared to open his eyes when he heard Zuko's curse of pain. He managed to regain his confidence and smirk at what he saw. He rose back to his feet. "What's happening to me?!" demanded Zuko through gritted teeth.

The Lieutenant chuckled at the boy. "Nothing much," he jeered. "Just the poison from the dagger finally taking effect. If left untreated, you'll be dead within the next four hours." He drew another dagger. "Though, you don't have to worry about that. I'm a merciful guy. I'll end everything here right now."

Zekk brought the dagger down to end it all. Zuko's hand shot up to grab the man's wrist in a wristlock. He pressed down on a pressure point on the back of the hand to force the man to his knees as he slowly rose to his feet. "I've faced nothing but pain all my life," stated Zuko calmly. "This is nothing." He pulled out his broadsword from the ice and Zekk's eyes went wide. "Go beg Agni for forgiveness. You'll find none here." The exiled prince finished the job.

Dropping his weapon, Zuko limped back over to his uncle. The man was still conscious but just barely. Suddenly pain erupted in the prince's head and his vision swirled. The boy collapsed onto the ground next to his uncle as his legs gave out from under him. The last thing he remembered seeing was the sight of several pairs of feet rushing towards him before everything went dark and the sweet embrace of unconsciousness took him.

* * *

It had been a good day for Sokka. He had had a wonderful dream about singlehandedly defeating a wooly platypus-bear and saving the village's meat supply from being raided. Waking up, he was greeted to sweet aroma of tri-seafood soup, which consisted mainly of whale, seal, and crab meat. He practically floated out of bed and over to breakfast.

After getting dressed, he rounded up the local young boys for their morning warrior lesson. They had actually gotten through his lecture without the need for any potty breaks, which in and of itself was an epic win. He even managed to dodge getting drenched today when his sister's practice with her magic water went astray yet again.

He took off hunting after that and managed to poach a giant sea crab not too far from the village gates. As he searched his bag for some rope to help him haul his catch back to the village, he found some blubbered seal jerky buried near the bottom. It was a delicious snack on the return trip. All the adult woman of the village thanked him for the crab meat, which was only natural he thought. Being the lone warrior in the village meant that this much was only expected after a successful hunt.

Yes, all in all, today was turning out to be excellent for Sokka. He settled onto a mound of furs that acted as a comfortable chair in the corner of his watchtower as his eyes slowly closed for an afternoon nap. He started dreaming about a ridiculously attractive girl coming to the village and meeting him. Just before he managed to see her face, a large explosion ripped through the village. Sokka jumped several feet into the air from surprise and landed on the unforgiving ice floor of his tower instead of back down on the furs.

He managed an "Ouch…" before a secondary explosion fully woke him up. He immediately scanned the seas from his watchtower. A gigantic mushroom cloud of fire was plainly stretched on the western horizon. The plume of black smoke rose into the air in waves as several smaller explosions continued to ring out. He pulled out a telescope from his bag and scanned the wreckage. It was a Fire Nation ship that was exploding and Sokka was relieved that it was an enemy ship that was taking damage. Maybe it was his father coming back to defend the village from a Fire Nation assault!

Suddenly some movement caught his eye and he viewed in closer on three lifeboats racing for the shoreline with all urgency. The small lifeboats beached themselves just outside the village, which was just barely obstructed from their view by a large snow dune. Even the villagers couldn't see, only Sokka was privy to the events from the height of his tower. '_And they thought the tower was a useless creation_,' mused Sokka.

His attention turned back to the people leaping out of the boats. He let out a small curse at the fact they were all obviously Fire Nation. Then suddenly the larger troop of men attacked the group of two and one of the small group members went down. Then a blaze of fire and steel was seen from the other as he single-handedly defeated the large group. The lone fighter seemed to be fighting for his downed comrade. Sokka could see the last two talking but at this distance there was absolutely no way to figure out what about. Then only the two members of the smaller group remained. Both were clearly critically injured.

Sokka bit his bottom lip. His mind was spinning with thoughts. '_They are Fire Nation, just let them die. But they were just fighting the Fire Nation, maybe they're rebels? Doesn't matter, everyone from the Fire Nation is evil. But I can't just let two men die when there's a chance that I can save them. But what if they attack us later?_' He turned back to the scene. The lone fighter was limping back to his downed comrade.

"Sokka!" called out his sister from below. "What's going on?!" The explosions had finally ceased and Katara had noticed her brother staring intensely with his telescope out of the village.

"Stupid morality…" grumbled Sokka to himself as he jumped down from the tower and landed in the snow next to his sister. He pointed to three of the nearby adult women that had gathered all the children together. "Please, I need your help. Please come with me." The three women looked at each other, but decided to follow the boy as he rushed out the village gates.

Sokka turned the bend and saw firsthand the view from behind the snow dune. He nearly emptied the contents of his stomach onto the ground, but barely managed to keep the bile down. He was a warrior, and if he couldn't even handle looking at these sights, then how was he going to participate in them? Several bodies of the Fire Nation soldiers littered the ground with either burn marks or sword wounds. The three women gasped at the sight as they caught up to the boy.

The young wanna-be warrior steeled his resolve and rushed to the side of the two fighters he had seen in his telescope. Things did not look good. The teenage fighter who caused all this destruction was laying face first in the snow with a wound in his shoulder that was bleeding freely. A strange green pus was oozing from the wound as well. He wasn't moving, save for a slight display to show he was still breathing. The older man was just barely hanging onto consciousness due to his massive blood loss. "My…nephew…Help…him…poison…" the older man got out before he too lost consciousness.

Sokka was no medic, but even he knew that wounds like these were seriously life and death injuries. With the help of the three women that had accompanied him, the Water Tribe villagers carried the two unconscious men back to their village. The entire walk back Sokka listened to the teenager, that looked about his age, mumble out over and over again, "Why father? Why?" and "Hang on uncle. Please don't die."


	2. Ch2 Determination

Disclaimer: Don't own any part of Avatar the Last Airbender.

A/N: Some people asked if Aang was going to make an appearance in this story. I wasn't planning on it, but we'll see, you never know. If anything, it definitely won't be until way down in the story and only it adds to the plot. I won't just toss him in for the sake of it. Please enjoy the story and please review!

* * *

**Determination**

Katara was standing out in front of the village gates and was the first to see her brother and the three village women return carrying two figures back with them. As they drew closer, her breath caught at the large supply of blood that was staining the white ground bright red. Her legs turned and ran back into the village. "Gran Gran!" she shouted. "Gran Gran!"

An elderly woman walked out of her hut. "Katara? What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's Sokka! He coming back from checking out those explosion sounds and has two injured people with him!" answered Katara quickly.

Gran Gran turned to look at the front gate just as Sokka and his party entered the village carrying two wound covered bodies. "In here!" she ordered as the group looked uncertain as what to do next. Katara spread two mats on the ground in the middle of their hut and both Fire Nation royals where placed there. Gran Gran had gone into medic mode.

Pointing at two of the women, she commanded, "Riona! Darya! Boil lots of water. Bring two large buckets full." She turned to the last woman. "Yoko! I need bandages, dressings; any kind of sterile wrappings now!" Katara was directed next. "Go get my medicine basket!" Sokka felt unneeded and as about to walk out when Gran Gran grabbed him by the back cuff of his tunic collar. "I need you to tell me what happened."

Sokka nodded. "From what I saw, the old guy took a javelin to the stomach. I broke the shaft in half to lessen the pain when he was moved, but didn't want to remove it."

"That was smart," confirmed Gran Gran. "That might be the only thing keeping him from bleeding to death. What about the other one? He doesn't appear to have as serious a wound as the older gentlemen, but his condition looks far worse."

Sokka racked his brain. "The old man said something about poison and to help his nephew," he recalled.

'_Poison!_' Gran Gran's mind shouted. "Not good, we don't know how long he's been poisoned or how fast acting it is." The water was brought in as well as the bandages and dressings. Katara followed right behind with the medical kit. "Katara, try to keep the boy's fever down! Once I stabilize his uncle, then I'll see what I can do. Hopefully the uncle's got more information on the type of poison. Being in the dark really decreases the boy's chances. Sokka, hold him down because he might flail."

The Water Tribe boy knelt down near the head of the old General and placed his hands on the man's shoulders to keep him held down. Gran Gran tore one of the white sheets that had been brought into several thin strips. She grasped the remnants of the javelin. "Hold him down tightly now, Sokka! Any movement can cause more serious injury." Sokka pressed down even harder to secure the man's shoulders. With one swift motion, Gran Gran pulled the javelin out of Iroh's body and the man's eyes shot open immediately as he screamed in tremendous amounts of pain. He attempted to flail around, but Sokka held him down tight.

Gran Gran immediately stuffed several rolls of the dressings into the puncture wound to act as packing. She then got Darya to maintain a strong pressure on the wound to control the bleeding, while cleaning the area with water. She then set upon further examination of the damage. Feeling around the injury site, she smiled. "It missed all the vital organs, thank Tui and La." She looked up at the old General's face and almost laughed. Sokka had jabbed a rag into the man's mouth to keep him biting off his own tongue from the screams of pain.

"You'll live," she informed him. "We just need to keep the bleeding under control and keep the area clean from infection. You'll have a scar, but that's to be expected. Do you realize how lucky you are? The tip of the javelin seems to have missed your internal organs and instead only cut a large gaping hole in you. That we can fix."

Gran Gran noticed that the old gentleman had calmed enough to listen to her words and stop screaming in pain. That was surprising as well. Most would still either be attempting to scream in pain or would be too distracted from the throbbing aches from the wound. That spoke volumes for the discipline of the man in front of her. However, she could see his eyes keep stealing looks over at her other patient.

"He's been poisoned," she informed him. The General looked as if he was desperate to speak. Nodding to Sokka, he pulled out the rag.

Iroh coughed a couple of times once his mouth was free and tried to wet his dry lips. Riona offered him a glass of water, which he eagerly pounded down. "My nephew was poisoned by an officer on our ship that apparently had orders to dispose of us. Jee wasn't known for having any great knowledge of poisons, nor did anyone crewed to that ship. He probably took one from the armory to lace his dagger with. Seeing it in action and knowing what was in the stores, I can only conclude that it is widow's kiss."

"Widow's kiss?" parroted Sokka as he sat next to the prone man. With the old man no longer attempting to flail about, he stopped holding him down.

"It's a nasty poison," answered Gran Gran. She had seen lots of poisons during the course of the war. "It enters the bloodstream slowly. Then after about thirty minutes or so, it strikes and can bring even the strongest man to his knees. Electrical stabs of pain, a sensation of something crawling through you, and an uncontrollable fever are three of the main aliments that accompany the poison. Most die within four to five hours after it is administered."

"Well then, why are we just sitting around jabbering?" demanded Sokka. "We know what it is, so let's do something about it then!" Seeing the amount of pain the young teenager in, caused Sokka's stomach to twist and turn. Not even people from the Fire Nation deserved to die such a painful death.

"It's not that simple," stated Iroh sorrowfully. "Most general types of poison antidotes and remedies can cancel out widow's kiss, however we need to draw out most of the poison first. This some very potent stuff and multiples rapidly after it takes effect. Antidotes are only effective when there are only small amounts of it. But I fear that the poison has already circulated too long in the boy's bloodstream to suck it out." Iroh's voice was full of grief and sorrow. His own son had died, was he really going to be forced to watch his nephew die before him now? No father should have to bury his own son, and Iroh knew that he couldn't handle it a second time.

Katara changed out the washcloth on Zuko's head with a freshly cool one. Yoko was spreading a poison antidote over the boy's shoulder wound. The green infection appeared to fizz and sizzle, only reducing a little bit, but not fully going away. The boy continued to burn up. Katara wiped up the sweat before it could cool the boy and change his temperature to be freezing instead. Several other cuts and burns covered the boy, but the shoulder wound was definitely the worst.

The Water Tribe girl glanced back at her grandmother. The elderly woman appeared to be talking to the older patient, who had been revived apparently. She focused in on the conversion halfheartedly as she continued to care for the boy in front of her. Then she overheard her elders talking about the poison in detail. She paused at hearing about it and its effects. This boy must have a high pain resistance to not be agonizing more from the effects. Then she heard about how to help cure it. "I can do it," she whispered. No one seemed to notice her statement in their brainstorm of how to remove the poison. She repeated herself louder.

"I can do it," rang out in volume throughout the tent and all eyes focused on Katara. "Poison is a liquid like water right? Then I should be able to do something. I'll bend the poison out of the body."

Gran Gran leveled a stern glaze on her granddaughter. "You realize that if you mess up, then you might only jeopardize the boy's life even more right? Are you sure that you can control your bending and focus it enough?"

Katara looked unsure of herself. Iroh voiced his thoughts, "Is there another waterbender who might be able to help? This is surely too much of a task to place on one so young."

Gran Gran shook her head. "Katara is the only waterbender remaining in the South Pole." She turned her head towards Iroh. "Your people saw to that."

Iroh feel silent. Katara grew more determined. "I can and I will!" The young waterbender turned back to kneel over Zuko's unconscious form. Sokka held the boy down like he had done to the old General.

Katara raised her hands over the young firebender and closed her eyes. She felt out with her senses. She had no idea what she was really doing and wasn't even sure that a waterbender had ever attempted something like this before. Crushing her doubts before they could overwhelm her, Katara refocused on her task. Clearing her mind, she could feel a foreign substance in the boy. The liquid felt malicious and like it didn't belong.

Katara drew a sharp breath and concentrated harder on the strange liquid. It could only be the poison. She began swinging her arms back and forth in a slow and steady swaying motion and could feel the poison gradually, albeit reluctantly, respond to her call. She urged the substance out of the bloodstream and back up towards the shoulder wound.

The young waterbender heard a series of gasps erupt throughout the hut and dared to open her eyes. A swirling, dark green liquid substance was hovering over Zuko's shoulder as she was still controlling it. Gran Gran brought a bucket of water closer and Katara eased the poison into it. Yoko was already reapplying more poison antidote to Zuko's shoulder and was already getting much better responses to the treatment this time.

Katara collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Sokka and Gran Gran were at her side instantly. "I'm okay. I think I got most of it out," she reassured them. "I've just never done anything like that before and it just exhausted me."

"Thank you for everything you have done," graciously thanked Iroh as he remained laying on the ground. Katara turned to the old man and saw that his eyes showed only a deep gratitude in them. "We're from the Fire Nation as I assume you could already tell, but you still saved us. We are forever in your debt." Darya finished cleaning Iroh's wound by flushing it with water.

"None of that now," countered Gran Gran as she walked over to Iroh carrying a needle and some medical thread. "I only did what was needed. You've got a lot of explaining to do though. What we do with you two depends on your answer."

Iroh sighed. Maybe it was the events that had happened today. Maybe it was kind accepting people that had just saved his and his nephew's lives. Maybe it was his tiredness with the state of the world. Whatever the reason, he decided that he would answer with unguarded secrets. With all his years of experience, he knew that returning to the Fire Nation now was impossible. He needed to gain the support of these people if he wanted to try and make a place for his nephew and himself outside of the Fire Nation. "You deserve that much. I will not hide any of what I know."

Gran Gran nodded as she had threaded the needle now. She instructed Sokka to light a small fire in the fire pit so that she could sterilize the needle, but Iroh spoke up. "Ah! No need to worry about that. Here." He lit a small flame above his raised right index finger. "One of the small benefits to being a firebender," he smiled. Gran Gran nodded again and sterilized the needle over the flame.

"Well to start things off, my name is Iroh, brother to Firelord Ozai, and over there is my young charge, Prince Zuko, son of the current Firelord and heir apparent to the throne," Iroh paused and noticed that the entire room was speechless and everyone staring at him wide eyed with their mouths hanging open in shock. '_Oops_,' he thought to himself, '_probably could have eased into that better…_'

Sokka recovered first. He drew his club shakily in defense. "You two are the Firelord's brother and son!"

Katara had covered her mouth with her mittened hands as she drew a sharp intake of breath. She turned to study the boy that she had just help heal again. He suddenly didn't seem so defenseless even in his weakened state.

Gran Gran seemed to be in deep thought. Suddenly Sokka's mind caught back up from reviewing the events he witnessed earlier. "Wait, wait, wait. If you two are so important, then why were you being attacked by your own men?"

Turning to look as his nephew, Iroh continued, "My brother and I do not see eye to eye on the continued conflict the world is engaged in anymore. I have had enough of fighting and wish to live out my days in peace while putting an end to this useless conflict, but my brother is the current Firelord and he wishes to complete what our great grandfather started one hundred years prior. Unfortunately, most of the Fire Nation is either too scared to speak out against him or actually believe the ridiculous notions that the war is good for the nation and the world itself."

At this part, Gran Gran stuck him with the needle to begin patching up his wound. Iroh let out a surprised yelp and whimpered slightly as Gran Gran secured the thread and continued sewing the wound shut. "Big baby," she muttered as he pouted at her in return. The rest of the room snickered quietly at the scene.

"So what then?" prodded Katara after she got over her giggles.

Iroh stopped pouting and put back on a serious face. "My brother believes that my idealism was getting to his son and decided to dispose of both of us while we were on a mission and away from prying eyes. We are, were, hunting the Avatar." Iroh raised a hand before anyone could interrupt. "I know, we were searching for the world's last hope, but we never found him or any sign of him. I spent most of the voyage slowly dropping hints to my nephew to try and talk him out of the quest his father sent him on. I had just dropped my strongest hint today and had him actually starting to question his motives when a portion of our crew mutinied and attacked us on the Firelord's orders."

"The Firelord ordered his own son's death?!" gasped Katara in surprise. Sokka looked a little stunned as well as he was trying to imagine what it must be like to find out your own father wants you dead.

Iroh nodded solemnly. "I knew that my brother would go far to accomplish his goals, but I never imagined he would attempt to kill his own son. I didn't realize just how far he had fallen in his mad drive for power."

Things weren't adding up for Sokka though. "Wait a second, if Zuko here is the heir to the throne, then why would the Firelord want to kill him?"

"My nephew is too compassionate. Despite his attempts to harden his resolve and please his father, Zuko has never had much love for unnecessary or overt displays of violence," answered Iroh.

"Didn't look that way to me," countered Sokka. "He sure did a number on those Fire Nation soldiers."

"Ah," nodded Iroh sagely. "Then what would you have done in an overwhelming assassination attempt?" Sokka paused as he tried to think of something. "My nephew knows how to fight and will not let harm come to those he cares for. Sadly, that number is in short supply. Moreover though, my nephew is not the only one in line for the throne; he is only first on the list. Next is his sister, who the Firelord favors far greater over his son. Her name is Azula and her mindset is the same as that of her father, Ozai."

Gran Gran finished patching Iroh's wound up and began applying an antibiotic cream to fight off any infection that might occur. Iroh shivered under the coldness of the cream.

"So now we are traitors to the Fire Nation, or something like that anyways," concluded Iroh. "I only fear how my nephew will take this when he wakes."

As if on cue, Zuko started groaning and shifting out of his slumber. His eyes shot open and he was greeted to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling. He scanned his surroundings quickly and his golden eyes settled on the old General. "Uncle!" he exclaimed and attempted to rush to the man's side only to stumble on his unsteady feet and crash onto the ground. He groaned in pain.

Sokka laughed at the prince as he crossed his arms smugly. Zuko finally took notice of others in the room with him and his uncle and shot the Water Tribe boy a dirty glare. He didn't like being laughed at. Katara helped the poor boy back onto his mat. "There now, no more sudden movements," she lightly scolded him like a nurse does to an uncooperative patient.

"It's good to see you so lively again nephew!" chuckled Iroh as he grinned widely at the sight of his charge safe and sound. "You have always been a fighter."

"What are you talking about uncle?" question Zuko. "What is this place? Who are these people?"

"These people," started Iroh, "are responsible for both you and me being among the living. Why the girl next to you even…" he paused suddenly. Turning to Gran Gran he bowed sincerely. "I must apologize. I have neglected to even ask the names of saviors."

Katara answered first. "I'm Katara. It's a pleasure to meet you." Iroh nodded in acknowledgement. "She was the one who got the poison out of you Zuko," he added.

"I'm the one who dragged your sorry butt over here!" provided Sokka smugly. Gran Gran knocked the young warrior upside the head. Sokka humbly cried out in pain and rubbed the back of his head.

"My grandson tends to act smug from time to time," excused Gran Gran. "His name is Sokka, and he, along with Riona, Darya, and Yoko here, helped to carry you to the village for treatment. My name is Kanna, but you may call me Gran Gran."

Zuko managed to sit up and look at everyone with guarded eyes. "Thanks for the help, but we would have been just fine."

"Fine?!" demanded Sokka as he was irritated at the ungrateful prince. "Your uncle had a freaking stake in his gut! And you were inflicted with a deadly poison! How in the name of Tui and La do you think that you were going to be just fine on your own? If anything, you should be on your knees thanking me for saving your undeserving butt!"

"Ha," countered Zuko. "Like I would undignify myself like that for some peasant."

"Why you..." started Sokka as he walked towards the recovering prince, but his sister beat him too it. Smacking the fire prince upside the head, Katara crossed her arms. "I just saved your life by drawing poison out of your body. You could at least say thank you."

Zuko's hand immediately went to the back of his head to massage the soreness from the strike. His shock that a peasant, and a girl nonetheless, had just dared to hit him cancelled out any violent retribution thoughts that might have crossed his mind. He barely got out, "How dare you strike a prince!"

"Ex-prince," corrected Katara as she looked at Zuko sternly.

The prince's eyes widened. He quickly turned to his uncle. "How much did you tell them?!"

"All of it," replied Iroh simply.

"But...how...wait...why," Zuko stuttered. His default anger took over. "Why would you tell them so much about us!"

"We were on the verge of death nephew," answered Iroh. "They helped us when they did not have too. We owe them much more than a simple explanation."

"That's still no reason to..." Zuko's rant was cut off before it could really get started by Katara using her waterbending to drench his head in water a little bit.

"You need to cool off," she stated much to Zuko's chagrin, the shocked expressions of Darya, Riona, and Yoko, and the snickering face of Sokka. Iroh was hiding an amused smile as well while Gran Gran raised an eyebrow by her granddaughter's implusiveness.

The young fire prince attempted to form a blaze of fire in this right hand to scare and intimidate the Water Tribe girl in retaliation for hitting him not once, but twice. However his attempts were unsuccessful as he couldn't control the fire well enough to call it forth from within him. The poison had tired his body out too much to perform bending right now. "What the?" he got out before he remembered why he had been placed in such a state again. His arms dropped down to his sides as he whispered out, "He really wanted me dead didn't he?"

Gran Gran took this as her cue to usher everyone out of the hut so that the uncle and nephew could talk.

The old General sighed. "I'm sorry Zuko. I wish that I could have seen this coming. Maybe then things wouldn't have had to turn out like they did."

Shaking his head, Zuko countered, "It's not your fault uncle. It's mine. If I was stronger, if my bending was mastered better, if I wasn't such a disappointment, then none of this would have happened. Father wouldn't be ashamed of me and want me gone."

"ENOUGH!" demanded Iroh sternly, his tone was sharp. Zuko snapped out of his self-defeating bubble. "Don't you ever think that! You are none of those things! If this is anyone's fault, then it's your fathers'! Don't you ever think of yourself as a disappointment!"

Anger stirred within the prince. "And why not?! Azula is heads and shoulders above me in terms of firebending mastery! My cluelessness in the war room led to me challenging the wrong man to an Agni Kai! I wandered the world for three years chasing shadows! Why shouldn't I think of myself as a disappointment?! Everything I try to do turns out horribly wrong! I'm a joke!"

A fireball struck the ground hard in front of Zuko and he stared at the burn mark on the ground. "You are not a joke! You just aren't what your father wants you to be! And that's because that's not who you are!"

His uncle's last sentence slapped Zuko in the face harder than any fist could have. The very last thing his own mother told him before she disappeared was to "Never forget who you are…" He had been struggling to remain awake when she woke him up late that fateful night, but those words rang through his head as clearly as they always had.

Zuko fell silent, all his anger and motivation to fight disappearing in the shock. He just turned away from his uncle and pulled a blanket over his head. All attempts from his uncle to get him to talk fell upon deaf ears. Even when Gran Gran and Katara walked in with some dinner for the two, did Zuko not even stir or talk to anyone. Sokka nicked the prince's dinner away merrily while saying there wasn't any reason for good food to go to waste for some ungrateful Fire Nation brat.

* * *

Two days passed. Sokka had unceremoniously dumped the Fire Nation soldiers' bodies into the ocean during this time. He didn't want any of the children in the village to happen upon the scene since it was so close to the village. Katara used her waterbending to move the ice and snow to wash the blood into the sea as well. Other than the three Fire Nation lifeboats that were beached on the shore, there was no longer any sign that an intense fight even took place there anymore.

Gran Gran changed the dressings on both Iroh's and Zuko's major wounds twice a day to keep them from getting infected. Both she and Iroh would exchange stories during these times, but Zuko just remained as unresponsive as ever. It took hours of prodding by Iroh just get the prince to eat and drink something.

During the afternoon of the third day, Sokka got sick of the moody prince's silence. For all he cared, the little firebender could just stare that the wall of the hut all day, but it was clearly making Gran Gran and Iroh both unsettled, which he didn't like. Gran Gran had patched the kid up; he should be thanking her, not giving everyone the cold shoulder. And while Iroh was technically Fire Nation, it was hard not to like the man. His stories and cheerful demeanor were catchy and fun to be around. Sokka had even been trying out some of the moves that the warriors in Iroh's stories had performed.

Gran Gran had said that Zuko's injuries had recovered enough for the boy to walk around now, so Sokka stormed into the tent and dragged the prince to his feet. "Katara and I want to show you something," he simply said. Zuko just stared back at him with empty eyes. '_These are the kind of people that we're fighting the war against?_' mentally thought Sokka. '_I thought all Fire Nation people were hotheaded and constantly itching to fight. This is just kind of pathetic_.'

Sokka dragged the young prince out the door in a headlock under his arm. Iroh just waved at them as they left, calmly sipping a cup of tea. Katara was waiting at the front gate of the village. "Sokka!" she scolded. "Quit dragging him around in a headlock. He's still recovering!"

Letting the sulky teen go, Sokka shrugged nonchalantly and defended, "But it was the only way to get him out here. He still didn't want to leave the hut!"

"How are you doing today?" asked Katara merrily. Zuko barely paid her any attention. Undaunted she grabbed his arm and led him out the village with Sokka following along; boomerang secured to his back and whale club strapped to his belt clip. "I thought that some fresh air would do you good. Whatever you and your uncle talked about two days ago left such a heavy atmosphere in the hut." More silence. "Look, I'm sorry about drenching you with water during our first meeting. Your outbursts were just starting to get on my nerves and you wouldn't even thank us for helping you." Still nothing.

"Hey pal," taunted Sokka. "We're trying to be friendly here. You could at least say something." Zuko just continued to let the Water Tribe siblings lead him around. His was trapped in his thoughts trying to piece things together and was barely aware of his surroundings.

Sokka poked the prince in the head a couple of times with his club trying to just get a rile out of the troubled teen. Nothing. Katara stopped him after a awhile. "Knock it off Sokka, you're not helping."

"Phfft…fine," Sokka stuck out his tongue as a last ditch attempt. Still nothing. He threw up his arms in defeat. "Seriously, what is he thinking about that's making him not care about anything else?"

"Oh, I don't know," said Katara sarcastically. "Maybe it has something to do with his father ordering his soldiers to kill him."

"Hey if that was me, then I wouldn't just get all creepy quiet and unresponsive," countered Sokka. "I'd be demanding answers and doing something about it."

"Just leave him alone Sokka. I don't think either of us can understanding the thought of our own parent wanting us gone," replied Katara.

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "Are you defending him? Did you forget that it's the Fire Nation's fault for starting all this suffering? Fair's fair if they get caught up in some of the backlash."

"Enough Sokka. That's different," answered his sister. She turned to look at Zuko as the trio continued to walk up a snow dune. "Trying to mock him right now is like kicking a baby seal." Silence fell over the group as they covered the last stretch up the hill.

Penguins awaited them at the top. Sokka rushed over to them like a little kid. Zuko just stood at the edge of the snow dune staring out at the arctic sea. The sun was slowly beginning to set on the horizon. Red, orange, and pink hues decorated the dusk colored sky. It reminded him of home. A place that he was no longer welcomed in anymore. He didn't even have a chance to return any longer. If he, by some miracle, found the Avatar now, his father had already branded him a traitor to the Fire Nation.

He wondered what had happened to Jee and the rest of his uncle's crew. He and his uncle may have taken out Zekk, but Jee and the crew were still outnumbered by the insurgents on board. They had probably been taken prisoner for helping them to escape. With the amount of damage to the ship, the insurgents also probably had set a return course to the closest Fire Nation port to regroup. That meant that they shouldn't linger here at the South Pole for too much longer either.

Zuko's thoughts drifted back to his fight with his uncle. His uncle was right, like always. He had forgotten who he was and was desperately chasing after something that would never be. His father never loved him; that much was painfully obvious now. But what now? What could he possibly do with his life now? He was a traitor in the eyes of the Fire Nation. And since he was Fire Nation, he seriously doubted that he would ever truly find a way to fit in living amongst people of the Earth Kingdom or the Water Tribes.

Perhaps he would take to wandering around as a mercenary. The life of a vagabond would be tough but what in his life hadn't been? But he doubted even that would be possible. Once his father learned that the first assassination attempt failed, then there would be more. He was doomed to spend the rest of his life on the run. Hunted down by the very man he had struggled tirelessly for years to gain the respect of.

Katara feed the few penguins that walked up to her some of the leftover fish parts from her lunch. As she pet them she looked over at Zuko. He was just standing silently staring out at the ocean. His face seemed to be very conflicted still. She glanced over at her brother. He had managed to anger one of the male alpha penguins and was currently caught up in a large circle of the creatures as they watched their champion and her crazy brother face off in a weird wrestling match. She could almost imagine them cheering and chanting the words, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Katara blinked at the scene a few times before deciding that Zuko was probably the safer one to talk to for her sanity's sake. "It's a beautiful sunset," she greeted as she stood next to him. Zuko actually took a second to glance in her direction before returning his glaze over the horizon.

Taking this tiny reaction as the closest thing to actually getting the boy to talk, Katara continued, "Gran Gran and I come up here every now and then to watch the sunset. It's always peaceful up here and she usually tells stories of back when the Southern Water Tribe was a prosperous village. The feats of the waterbending masters of old were always incredible to listen to. One day I hope to be just as good as them with my bending."

The bight crimsons, oranges, and pinks were slowly beginning to change to deeper reds, purples, and blues as the sun continued to get lower on the skyline. "My father is off fighting in the war along with the rest of the men of the village. That's why you probably didn't notice any guys older than Sokka in the village. The next closest are two eight year old twins. We aren't as populous as our sister tribe in the North, but the men still wanted to do their part in ending the conflict sooner, you know.

"They've been gone for two years," she continued, "but I'm sure that they're okay. My dad is strong enough to take care of everybody." Katara could feel herself start to tear up as she talked about her father. She missed him greatly and secretly wanted him to return home and forget about the war. She didn't even know why she was talking about him; it just kind of flowed out in the awkwardness of being the only one talking in this conversation, if it could even be called that.

"I'm sorry," Zuko whispered out so softly that Katara almost didn't hear him.

She looked at him in surprise. He looked like he was about to say more when all of a sudden a loud cry sounded from behind them and they both spun around.

"Okay Mr. Slippy-Slippy-Flipperpoofs," taunted Sokka as he circled his opponent, a larger than normal, four-flippered blue penguin. "You wanna go, then let's go!" He smacked his chest proudly, which unbeknownst to him was the penguin signal for an issue of challenge for the alpha position.

The alpha penguin, which was less than impressed with the name Sokka mocked him with, gave a squawk and charged the hapless teen, tackling him to the ground. Sokka twisted around and restrained one of the creature's flippers while using his free hand to rake the bird across the face. The penguin kicked out with its stumpy little webbed feet and hit the boy in the knee, which caused him to release his hold on the bird's flipper. A head butt followed up to knock the young warrior sprawling to the ground.

The group of penguin onlookers seemed to be laughing with their strange penguin laughing squeak and the alpha stood over Sokka looking pretty smug for a penguin. "Oh, you're good," acknowledged Sokka. "But so am I!" The warrior leapt up and tackled the bird into a headlock. The bird struggled but Sokka had too strong of a grip. So it started playing dirty and pecked his arm a few times. Sokka released the hold and jumped backwards while rubbing his arm gingerly. He looked up to see the alpha running to build up some speed before jumping onto it stomach and sailing straight at Sokka like a torpedo with every intention to ram the poor boy who dared to challenge it for the alpha spot.

Sokka yelped loudly and just barely managed to leap to the side and out of the way. Unfortunately this was an all-or-nothing move and the penguin couldn't stop. Zuko and Katara turned around at the sound of Sokka's cry and the prince immediately became wide eyed as a large penguin barreled into him and propelled him off the edge of the snow dune.

Zuko recovered quickly and grabbed the penguin, positioning himself on top of the bird just before they hit the snow. If this foolish bird had the gall to ram into him, then it would be gracious enough to ferry him down the dune. They reached the bottom and Zuko leapt off of his make-shift toboggan, which was looking very dazed and confused as to what was going on.

Katara and Sokka soon joined Zuko at the bottom of the snow dune after riding down on penguins as well. "Wow!" exclaimed Katara. "Who knew that people from Fire Nation knew how to go penguin sledding?!"

"You mean that you guys actually do that for amusement?!" countered Zuko in surprise.

"Yeah, all the kids of the Water Tribe do that for fun!" added Sokka. "It's like a rite of passage or something."

Zuko grabbed Sokka by the cuff of his tunic with his right hand and lifted the boy up into the air a couple of inches. "You could have warned me! Or at least let me get on a penguin without crashing the stupid beast into me like that!"

Sokka just laughed at the prince. Zuko tossed the young warrior into the snow, but the teen kept laughing. "You should have seen the look on your face. It was like this!" He made a bug-eyed face of surprise before bursting into a giggle fit again. Katara had the decency to at least try and hide her laugh behind a mittened hand. "At least it got you to start talking again!" he continued.

Zuko look infuriated, but said nothing. "Ah, com'on!" pleaded Sokka. "Don't just clam up again. That's just lame."

Zuko flung his arm out from him, his hand gripping a dagger of Water Tribe make. Sokka stopped laughing and realized that the dagger on his belt was missing. Before either Water Tribe sibling could say anything, Zuko shocked them both by cutting off his topknot in one fluid motion, leaving only a small diamond of black hair on his otherwise shaven head. He dropped the dagger in the snow and let the wind carry away his strains of hair. "I will seek out my revenge against my father," he stated plainly.

"Wwhhaat?!" stuttered out Sokka. "Where did that come from?!"

"It's all I've been thinking about these past few days," revealed Zuko. "My uncle is right. My father has no right to be disappointed in me as a son. I should be disappointed in him as a father. He's no parent. A loving parent wouldn't burn his own son's face. A loving parent wouldn't banish his own son just for speaking out of turn once. A loving parent wouldn't attempt to assassinate his own son with an entire crew of soldiers. I'm a marked man. More attempts to kill me will come. Bounty hunters and mercenaries would love to get the reward that's sure to be on my head, so I'm going to put a end to the source before he gets me."

"So you're just going to kill your father?" prodded Katara. "Is that how it is in the Fire Nation? Kill or be killed?"

"What do you think I should do?" demanded Zuko irritability. "He's not a man you can reason with. I see that now. There's no pleasing him! He sent me out to look for the Avatar! A person that hasn't existed for a hundred years! There's no mercy from him! He gave me this scar on my face just to teach me a lesson! He only knows how to rule with an iron fist! Besides, I would be doing the world a favor. Isn't taking out the Firelord what everyone wants the Avatar to magically show up and do? Well he's not coming, trust me, I know. With all the searching I've done, I know that he's nowhere to be found. My great grandfather saw to that."

Both Sokka and Katara were silent as this.

Zuko continued his declaration, "I won't be a pawn under him anymore. I tried to earn his respect and he just threw me away like an empty container of fire flakes." He made a fist in his raised right hand. "With these two hands, I will shape my own destiny."

The sun still just barely shone over the horizon and the atmosphere remained very solemn among the trio. Suddenly Sokka noticed a sparkle of light flicker in the distance. "Wait a second," he interrupted. "What's that?" He pulled out his telescope to get a better look as Zuko and Katara both turned to scan the ocean.

Sokka let out a low curse. "Fire Nation."

Grabbing the telescope from Sokka, Zuko noticed three Fire Nation warships sailing off in the distance. He checked the emblem of the flagship. He didn't like what he saw, and spat out a single name like it left a bad taste in his mouth, "Zhao."


	3. Ch3 Escape from the South Pole

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Avatar the Last Airbender.

A/N: Alright two things. First, some people are saying that Zuko is too quick to seek revenge on his father. The way I see it is like this; in the show after Azula was sent to take out Zuko, he still had the fallback of taking Aang down to restore his honor. In this story, Aang's existence kinda isn't known to the world. All Zuko thinks is that he's been chasing shadows. There is no out, however small, for him to take this time. He can't catch the Avatar to restore his honor, because to the World, the Avatar is still lost and unknown.

Also, on another note, we could have several chapters of whiny, "Time to make daddy love me" Zuko or..... we can have the assassination attempt give him a kick in the pants earlier and have him start his development more from his Season 2 self. I think that it is apparent which way I prefer.

Second, a couple of people have asked about pairings. I've already got those planned; however, I don't really want them to take over the story so early on. So I'll keep things small between the characters in the romance department early on and build things up later.

Pairings will be:

Zuko x Katara (Aang's not around, so did you really expect anything different?)

Sokka x Suki x Ty Lee (Love Triangle for Sokka cuz it will be more hilarious that way.)

Jet x Jin (Yes, Jet will be joining and living this time round. It was a waste to kill him off in the cannon.)

Not 100% sure about Toph yet though. (If I decide to bring Aang in way later, then him; otherwise it will be The Duke. Either way, these three are all the youngest of the bunch and any romance amongst them will be extremely light and innocent.)

Please enjoy the stoy! And please review!

* * *

**Escape from the South Pole**

The sun had completely set by the time Zuko, Sokka, and Katara raced back into the village. There was a large roaring fire that was burning merrily in the fire pit centered in the middle square of the village. Most of the villagers appeared to be gathered nearby enjoying the heat in the cool evening. The young fire prince smoldered the flames immediately to cast the village into darkness, save for the few small fires dotted here and there throughout the village.

"Zuko! What are you doing?!" questioned Iroh sternly from his seat next to the fire pit. He had been in the middle of weaving an elaborate tale about the Cave of Two Lovers for the children as a bedtime story. Several younger voices added their opinions as well to Zuko's abrupt interruption, especially since Iroh was just reaching the part where Shu had left to join in the war between his and Oma's villages. Despite it being a love story, even the young boys had been captivated by the tale while the young girls hung on every word. The mothers were still going around finishing up the last chores of the day, but it was obvious that they had been listening as well. Iroh was a master of storytelling and the romance fascinated them all.

"My pursuers have come," Zuko answered cryptically. Iroh's eyes went wide. The rest of the village seemed confused until Sokka clarified.

"There's three Fire Nation warships approaching the village! They are still a ways out but there're in the area!"

Whispers and terrified voices began to fill the village as fright and fear started to creep into everyone's hearts. Children were hiding around their mother's legs, Sokka had drawn his boomerang, and Iroh was in deep thought over how to overcome this. After a few minutes of listening to the village panic uncontrollably, Zuko grew annoyed at all of the alarm and terror that was overwhelming everyone.

"Enough!" he boomed over the village while everyone grew silent and turned to face him. He knocked Sokka upside the head. "Thanks for causing a panic. You could have explained the situation better."

"Well excuse me for wanting to tell my friends and family that danger was on the horizon," shot back Sokka as he crossed his arms.

"Whatever," he dismissed. After that though, he remained quiet. Anymore guidance that people thought he might give wasn't forthcoming.

Katara cleared her voice instead and decided to explain the situation more from what Zuko had told them on their way back to the village. "It's dark. From the distance the Fire Nation ships were at, it will be difficult for them to spot the village, especially in the darkness. Thankfully because it's nighttime, they will probably weight anchor and stay where they are for the night. However in the morning, we will be hard to miss from the sea. That gives us at least tonight to figure out what to do." The panic that had been sweeping through the village was still there but, under Katara's reasoning, signs of it starting to diminish slowly appeared.

Smirking, Zuko turned to Sokka. "You're sister did a much better job. That's how you break bad news to a crowd."

The Water Tribe boy looked at the foreigner in irritation before shooting an annoyed glare his sister for upstaging him. His pride was wounded, but he held his tongue this time because he knew the situation was dire.

The exiled prince ignored the young warrior as his turned to his uncle and stated, "What confuses me, is how they managed to track us so fast."

The Dragon of the West answered, "The remaining loyalists must have had a messenger hawk sent to the nearest outpost. They most likely requested reinforcements.

Zuko cursed silently. "It's time to get out of here. Let's take one of the lifeboats and head to the Earth Kingdom."

"What?!" countered a stunned Iroh. "What about the villagers? You would just leave them to the mercy of the Fire Navy?"

Zuko turned to face his uncle. "Its unfortunate uncle, but we don't really have the means to help them. Besides it's not like it's our problem about what might happen to their village.

"Who's the commander?" demanded Iroh in a low voice.

Zuko paused. "I don't really know. I didn't exactly get a good look. But I'm sure that..."

"Zuko," cut off his uncle. He could tell when his nephew wasn't telling the truth. "Who is the commander?"

"Zhao," replied Zuko in defeat.

A sharp intake of breath from his uncle was the response. "Zuko," he started in a low voice. "You know just as well as I do what Zhao will do to this village just because he can."

Sokka turned to Iroh. "Wait. Hold it for a second. How bad is this Zhao character?"

The old General looked at Sokka with sympathy. "Since it is Zhao, there will not be a village standing here tomorrow. Only torched remains."

"What?!" exclaimed Sokka in return as murmurs picked up through the villagers again. He turned to Zuko and shoved the boy. "You seem to have left out that little detail! When were you going to tell us that was going to happen? Maybe we should just hand you over to them! That way they'll just leave us alone and the Fire Nation can take care of its own problems."

Zuko ignited a ball of flame in his hand. "It would do you well not to try and threaten me." The Water Tribe boy drew his boomerang in response without stepping back. "I told you what I thought you needed to know."

"Enough Zuko!" demanded Iroh in a strong tone. "These people have harbored us for the last few days and that is all that Zhao will see. If we just leave, then you leave these people to their deaths. Do you really think that you can live with yourself after doing something like that?" Zuko's face remained tight. "I know you nephew. It would tear you apart even if you barely know them."

The fire in Zuko's hand wavered and dissipated. Sokka kept his boomerang drawn. The fire prince's wrists tightened as he clenched his fist and shouted at his uncle, "Fine! What would you have me do then?!"

"Actually, I'm not quite sure..." remarked Iroh. Zuko face-faulted. "But there's got to be something we can do to help out."

Anger seemed to be slowly appearing on Zuko's face; however, it was Gran Gran that spoke up first, "Well I hate to interrupt such a spirited discussion, but do mind if we have a say in this matter?"

"Ah, I forgot myself for a moment there," excused Iroh as he bowed in apology. "Of course we would value your insight. This matter concerns your village greatly."

Gran Gran looked over the village wistfully for a few moments. "The Fire Nation has attacked this village several times in the past. The Southern Waterbenders have all been swept as a result, my best friend Hama was among them." Gran Gran sighed forlornly. "It was only a matter of time before they returned to finish us for good. I agree with you Iroh. We are a backwater settlement. And if what you say about this Zhao is true, then disaster will strike us."

Worry was beginning to creep back into the villagers as their matriarch was already sounding defeated. Sokka spoke up, "I will defend the village! I promised dad that I wouldn't let anything bad happen to anyone here."

Zuko rolled his eyes at the young man's naïve bravado. '_Right, a single, untrained warrior is going to stop three Fire Nation warships from razing a tiny no name village_,' he mused. _'I can just imagine him charging up a boarding ramp only to get knocked aside_.'

"No Sokka," denied Gran Gran. "We will use the option left to us by your father."

"But Gran Gran!" pleaded Katara. "You mean that we're going to just abandon our home?" Her brother, along with several of the village mothers, didn't appear to be too fond of the idea either.

"We have no choice child," replied Gran Gran. "With the men gone off to fight, we can do nothing but flee now that the war has come to our doorstep once again."

Zuko's curiosity got the better of him. "What are you talking about? What do you mean by abandoning your home?"

"Hakoda saw fit to leave a means of escape for us should the Fire Nation come," answered Gran Gran. "There are enough ships hidden in a small cove just north of here to ferry us away. We'll head to Kyoshi Island. We've had good trade relations with them in the past and hopefully they'll take us in."

Iroh's face lit up. "See nephew! That's how we can help! We can assist the villagers to escape on those ships."

The young fire prince shook his head. "Do you really think that the wind sails from Water Tribe ships can outrun the coal engines of the Fire Navy? You're going to need a distraction to get away."

Reluctant to ask, Iroh hesitantly questioned, "What did you have in mind?"

Zuko glanced over the villagers. "Since you seem so set on having us help everyone here, there's only one choice really. I'll stay behind and distract Zhao and his men."

"Nephew!" countered Iroh. "Do you realize just how dangerous that is going to be?! You are the one that they are after!"

"Do you have any other suggestions uncle?" questioned Zuko. He motioned to the village populace. "Do you really think that one of them could pull something like a massive distraction off? I don't think so. I didn't want to help in the first place, but if you're insisting so much, then this will have to be my part."

"How will you even get away?" asked Iroh.

"I'll escape on one of the lifeboats. We can't use them to evacuate the villagers, because the fires from the engine will be spotted, but after the confusion they'll be my best bet to get away." It was a weak strategy and they both knew it, but there really weren't any other alternatives. Wind sails couldn't rival fossil fuels. The evacuation ships needed to get out unspotted.

"Wait! Stop! Hold up!" demanded Sokka. "Weren't you going to use a lifeboat to escape earlier? You mean that you were just going to take off like that and alert the Fire Nation to our position!"

Zuko shrugged. "I'm helping you out now aren't I?"

"You little..." he started. "And we're supposed to trust this guy to distract the Fire Nation for us?! No way! I'm coming with you! If you're alone you might just reveal our position away to the enemy."

"And why would I do that?" countered Zuko. "If you forgot, I'm a wanted man. Why would I walk up to people trying to kill me of my own free will? And my uncle is going with the rest of the villagers. I wouldn't sell out his location like that so easily."

"I don't care," replied Sokka. "Besides I promised my dad that I would keep the villagers safe. Why would I leave a job like that to a member of the Fire Nation?"

Katara spoke up. "Well if you're going to help him, then I am too."

"Oh no you're not," her brother countermanded. "You'll just get in the way. This is a man's job."

Katara's eyebrow flinched. "Oh, excuse me. I didn't realize martyrdom was a guy's only thing."

"Fighting battles is a guy's job Katara," replied Sokka. "We'll take care of these little fire morons, buy you all some time, and be gone before they know what hit them."

"Well if it's that easy, then I can't believe I was even worried for you," she shot back sarcastically.

"It's a woman's job to worry over the slightest things," mocked Sokka teasingly.

Stomping her foot in a huff, Katara finished with, "Fine! Go get yourself killed! See if I care!"

"You should listen to your brother," added Zuko. "Can you even fight? We're not going to be talking to these soldiers. There're going to be trying to kill us if we're spotted."

"Of course I can fight!" stressed Katara. "I have my waterbending!"

"Really now?" taunted Zuko. "And have you ever used your bending to fight before? Have you ever used it to injure another?" Katara's face tightened but she didn't respond. "Tell you what. If you can attack and hit me with your bending, then you can come."

Zuko stood tall after this proclamation. "Fine then!" countered Katara. She had never done much with her bending before in terms of using it to fight, but she would show him to look down on her. Summoning up a plume of water she launched it at Zuko to knock the boy back a few steps. Zuko jumped over the weak attack and landed in a crouch right in front of Katara. He swept his leg out to knock her off her feet. He caught her just before she hit the ground.

"That's why you aren't coming," he stated. "You can't even handle something like that." He released his grip and Katara fell the last few inches to the ground. Katara attempted to freeze the water at his feet but missed and froze Sokka's feet to the ground instead. "Every freaking time!" cried out the Water Tribe boy in irritation as he began to chip away at the ice with his boomerang.

"Katara," started Iroh. "We're going to need a waterbender to help move the ships. You should come with the rest of the villagers to help them. I'm sure that Zuko and Sokka will be fine on their own."

Katara struck the ground in frustation, but nodded at Iroh's suggestion.

The Dragon of the West turned to his nephew, "Just promise me that you will meet us at Kyoshi Village."

"I'll be there uncle. You can count on it."

Gran Gran helped her granddaughter up as she looked at her grandson. "There's no stopping you either is there?"

"I'm not going to let a Fire Nation brat show me up. This village is mine to protect, not his," answered Sokka as he crossed his arms while holding onto his boomerang.

"Look," started Zuko. "Now that we've finally got a plan, everyone's going to need to pack up the essentials and whatever else they can carry. The village needs to be empty before it is spotted."

As the villagers rushed to gather what they needed, Zuko headed to the hut that had housed him and his uncle while they were recovering. He collected the few meager possessions that they had had on their person when they escaped in a small brown sack. As he turned to leave, Gran Gran walked into the hut carrying a small bundle. "Here," she said.

"What's this?" asked the prince as he accepted the bundle. He unfolded to wrappings to reveal a set dark blue Water Tribe furs. He raised the clothes up to see that it was a full piece combat suit of Water Tribe make.

"It used to belong to my son, but he's long since outgrown them. Sokka's has his own set that he's no doubt changing into right now, and I thought that these would be better for you to wear than your current attire," explained Gran Gran.

Zuko looked down at his clothes. He was still in his old garments, which were still ragged and bloodied from when he had arrived; though the deep red dye of the clothes hid the dried blood quite well. He managed a, "Thank you."

"If you and Sokka come back in one piece, then that's all the thanks that I need," replied Gran Gran as she left so the young fire prince could change. Finishing up, he lightly stretched to test his new threads. Luckily enough, they seemed to be a good fit—neither too loose or too tight. Since it was a combat suit, it allowed for easy movement as well. He liked it.

Gathering his stuff and leaving the hut, Zuko headed over to his uncle who had made his way to the back village gates while he waited for everyone to finish getting ready. The old General was wearing a thick blue fur coat that he probably received from Gran Gran. "That's a nice change of clothes there nephew."

Nodding slightly, Zuko handled his uncle the bag with their few possessions. "Something tells me you might want your Pai Sho tiles." Smiling, Iroh accepted the items. Several minutes passed before Iroh noticed several of the Water Tribe villagers walking over as they had finished packing for the voyage. "When we meet again in Kyoshi, I have something that I wish to tell you."

Zuko looked at his uncle strangely, but nodded.

Gran Gran and the rest of the villagers arrived to meet up with the firebender royals. Katara ignored the fire prince as she flung a backpack over her shoulders and took another bag from her grandmother to lighten the older woman's load.

Sokka decided to voice his option of Zuko's new attire. "Nice clothes. Just don't ruin them. Water Tribe gear much cooler than the stuff you've got in the Fire Nation." He patted his boomerang and whale bone club for added emphasis.

"Whatever," dismissed Zuko. He raised his good eyebrow. "Is there a reason that you're wearing make-up?"

Several giggles passed through the crowd of people as Sokka felt his cheeks heat-up in anger. "This is customary war paint! Not some silly, girly make-up! It symbolizes the strength of a warrior and allows him to blend in with the winter environment!"

"Right…" mocked Zuko. "As long as I don't have to wear it." He dismissed the flustered Sokka, and turned to the rest of the villagers. "Head for the cove and wait until you see the warships sailing away before you start off."

Iroh embraced Zuko in a big bear hug while Sokka, Katara, and Gran Gran shared a group hug. "Be careful," whispered Katara to her brother.

As the group of evacuates departed, Zuko and Sokka just watched them silently as they faded into the night with only a small flame from Iroh's hand to light the way. "Let's get this done," ordered the fire prince as he turned to walk to the nearest hut.

"So what did you have in mind?" questioned the young Water Tribe warrior.

Coiling some rope that laying next to the hut over his shoulder, the young fire prince answered, "Didn't want to worry my uncle and the others, but from here on we're just winging it."

"Wait, wait, wait, you mean that you don't have a detailed plan?" continued to prod Sokka in shock. He smacked his forehead in irritation. "So what was that big distraction idea that you came up with about then?"

"Hey," defended Zuko. "I think on the strategic level. The smaller tactical details are always hit and miss for me." He slung the rope that he had just coiled diagonally across his body. "You got any ideas?"

"Do I have any ideas?" scoffed Sokka like Zuko had just insulted him on a personal level. "Just call me the Idea Guy. Guess I have to pick up the slack." Sokka went into a thinking pose, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Let's see… I've got it! It will be just like setting traps for hunting." He picked up another coil of rope. "When the troops enter the village, they're going to find it empty. So where do you think that they're going to look for people?"

"I don't know," shrugged Zuko. "The huts I guess?"

"Exactly!" agreed Sokka. "And that's where we'll surprise them." For the next three hours, the two teens split off to booby-trap the entrances to all of the huts. Zuko mainly used trip ropes and pitfalls to sabotage his huts. The trip rope would cause the intruder to fall forward into the hut and then a bag hanging overhead would release heavy contents onto the unfortunate soldier. For his second main trap, he used his firebending to melt a large, single-person hole into the icy ground of the doorway and covered it with a dirty animal fur.

Sokka's methods were slightly more varied and a little less conventional than the fire prince's. He set-up a few trip ropes as well, but these where attached to a large pan that was poised to knock the unwelcomed guest upside the face. For a few doorways, he positioned a bucket of fish guts to fall onto the next person to enter the hut. His third signature consisted of placing dozens of children's marbles in the entrance ways to trip up the incoming soldiers.

"This isn't a game," snapped Zuko as he observed his fellow saboteur's handiwork. "Marbles? Did you really think that trained professional soldiers are going to fall for something so childish?" As he walked towards the Water Tribe boy he failed to notice some loose marbles that had been dropped in the darkness. Stepping on the round stones, in combination with the slick snowy ground, the fire prince's foot immediately shot out from under him and he found himself lying on the ground facing skyward abruptly. "Ow…" he groaned slightly.

Rolling back up to his feet after a few seconds, he noticed Sokka's grinning face. "Not a word…" he attempted to save some face with.

Sokka laughed to himself at Zuko's expense. Then he picked up several objects from the ground. "Despite proving the effectiveness of my tactics just now, I think we could do one last thing." He was holding up several wooly platypus-bear metal foot traps. Zuko smirked in return. A few minutes later, they had placed the leg traps all throughout the village square and covered them lightly with snow.

"I say that we probably have about three, maybe four, hours until sunrise," guessed Sokka. "How about some sleep before this all goes down?" Zuko nodded in agreement and they both climbed up into the village watch tower. Spreading out two individual sleeping mats on opposite sides of the tower, they crashed for some last minute shut eye.

* * *

The sun rose slowly over the horizon and Zuko's eyes shot open. Looking out the window, he noticed that the three Fire Nation ships were still anchored in the waters just outside the village. Any second now, the watch would probably alert the ships to the Water Tribe village, now that the sun made it plainly visible as to where it was. Gathering a snowball, he tossed it at Sokka and nailed him in the forehead.

"Wah!" shouted Sokka as he was rudely interrupted from his dreamland. He rubbed the snow out of his face, glaring at his fellow warrior. "Not cool, Fire Nation punk." He looked around a little unsure about what was going on, until the events of the previous day caught back up. "So how's the situation looking?"

"Sun's up," answered Zuko simply. "Won't be long until the village is spotted now." They sat in an uneasy silence for a few minutes. "So…know any good jokes?" asked the fire prince off-handedly.

"Huh?" responded Sokka dumbly. "Yeah… I've got some knee slappers, but where'd that come from?"

"Small talk doesn't come easily for me," retorted Zuko crossly. "Give me a break. I've been hunting the Avatar for the longest time. It's been business for as long as I can remember. Talking informally to people isn't my strong point."

"Heh," joked Sokka. "The Fire Nation is unsociable. There's a shocker." Faint whistles slowly filled the air. "Hey, what's that sound?"

Tackling Sokka to the ground, Zuko shouted, "Get down!" Moments later a flaming catapult shot tore through the upper half of the watchtower like it was nothing. More artillery continued to rain down upon the village as the softening barrage continued.

The burning rocks crashed into the simple Water Tribe huts and tents, completely destroying the light structures. Giant craters of black, burnt destruction scorched the village grounds. The artillery would strike the ground and bounce from impact to cause even more devastation. Smoke and black soot filled the air.

"Those bastards!" growled Sokka as he witnessed the annihilation of his childhood home. Anger intensified in his eyes every time another piece of artillery struck.

Zuko took in the destruction firsthand as well. All his life he had been taught that this war was a way to share the Fire Nation's greatness with the world. How was completely obliterating a small peaceful village like this a "sharing of greatness"? All during his search for the Avatar, he had never observed destruction firsthand. He didn't like to resort to such tactics, and whenever they came upon a recently leveled town, he had figured that they had either resisted or had been hiding enemy troops and supplies. Watching the heavy weaponry being unleashed on an unarmed, peaceful village led to him to start to wonder just how many of the towns and displaced refugees, that he barely paid attention too before, were just as unjustly treated in this conflict. "At least we managed to get everyone out," he stated to the native Water Tribe boy as a silver lining to the fiery fate of the village.

"That still doesn't excuse what happening here! And I can't do anything about it!" countered Sokka. He felt so helpless to just watch his home get demolished as he took shelter off to the side. He wanted the Fire Nation to get closer now. He couldn't fight against long range artillery, but if they got in range of his club and boomerang, then he would show these arsonists what he thought of their actions. His grip on his boomerang tightened.

"You'll get your chance," assured Zuko as he checked his broadsword. "The path out of here is going to be one hell of a ride." The barrage finally began to slow and stop. Checking on the warships, all three were now on a collision course with the shore. "They're coming. Let's go."

Slipping out from their cover, the two warriors positioned themselves on either side of the front gate and waited. The shaking of the ground and the sound of breaking ice signaled the arrival of the raiders. Peering out from the side of the gate, Sokka noticed the front ship ramps lowering and several waves of soldiers racing down to storm the village. '_They really aren't here to take prisoners…_' he thought seriously and was suddenly very grateful that everyone had already left for the evacuation ships. A wave of spearmen descended first in a charge with their weapons lowered. They were flowed closely by a line of firebenders that all had a blaze of fire raging in each of their hands. "Hey! Sokka! Focus!" sharply whispered Zuko as the enemy force drew closer.

Snapping himself out of his shock of seeing so many enemies charging, Sokka grasped the rope lying at his feet. They would be in the thick of it soon and if he couldn't even do this much, then he could hardly be called a warrior. Moments before the first line of spearmen charged into the village, both Zuko and Sokka pulled tightly on their end of the rope and the coils around the wooden post of either side the main gate pulled taut and a long rope tire wire rose from the snow to knock down the entire first line. Their initial job done, both boys melded away in the back snow drifts of the village and out of sight.

When the first line went down, several of the second were close enough to collide with the fallen forms of their comrades and lose their balance as well. A large chokehold formed at the front of the village. Fire Nation soldier started looking around slightly panicked, expecting an ambush. However, no such counter attack came. Regrouping, they began to rush the huts and tents to flush out the Water Tribe resistance.

Screams of pain and loud crashing sounds followed the storming of the huts not destroyed by the catapult barrage. Zhao entered the village on a Komodo rhino and flanked by an honor guard. He looked over the state of the battle with a sour expression. He had men lying completely sprawled out all over the village; from the front gate to the courtyard to the entrances of the houses. Those that were still conscious formed a somewhat rag-tag resemblance to a formation of attention when the Commander waltzed in. The thing that angered him the most however was that there was not a single body of a member of the Water Tribe to be seen collapsed anywhere in the snow.

"Report!" he demanded to the field officer, who appeared to have lost his helmet and was clutching his right arm in pain.

"Sir! The village has been swept clean! There are no enemy units to report!" he reported professionally despite his appearance.

"No enemy units…" muttered Zhao. "Then how pray tell do you explain all the causalities cluttering the area? Are my troops really that incompetent to knock themselves out taking an empty village?"

"Umm…no, sir!" recovered the field officer. "The place appears to have been laced with multiple traps despite its abandonment. Whoever set up these traps apparently was a professional and knew how to hit us."

Zhao glanced around to see the aftereffects of the traps. He noticed several marbles and overturned buckets of fish heads lying next to his fallen soldiers. Slipping off of his mount, he walked over to the field officer, who was getting more and more anxious with every step that his commandeering officer took. "Professionals you say, hmm?"

The field officer's eyes shifted back and forth several times. "Yes, sir!"

With a backhand, he slapped the poor man to the ground and kicked him harshly in the stomach. "You incompetent moron! You mean to say that all it took to stop my men cold was a bunch of marbles and childish pranks! Pick yourself up and gather search parties to scout the area to find where the enemy retreated to." The fallen field officer scrambled to follow out his commander's orders and get away.

"I'm surrounded by incompetence," grumbled Zhao as he took a few steps around the village center. Suddenly his foot stepped square on a metal platypus-bear trap and the trap caught his leg securely in its metal teeth. Zhao let out a girly scream of pain as his men rushed to remove the trap.

Meanwhile, Zuko and Sokka had fled the village and reached the three lifeboats off to the side. Zuko peered over the snow dune and frowned. "Not good. There's a small team of soldiers securing the boats. We'll have to fight our way out."

Sokka grinned as he drew his boomerang. "Finally. Time to pay them back for what they did to my village."

A flash of blue cut through the sky and nailed one of the soldiers upside the head to render the man unconscious. The remaining six of the Fire Nation soldiers immediately turned to see two warriors charging them.

Three of them revealed themselves to be firebenders by blasting a wave of fire at Sokka as he charged forward with his whale bone club while shouting a battle cry. Zuko jumped forward and intercepted the flames, extinguishing them with his own bending abilities. This gave the Fire Nation soldiers a start. They hadn't been expecting for their bending to be neutralized.

Sokka managed to catch one of the firebenders off guard with this and slammed his club into the man's stomach with a two handed strike. As the soldier doubled over, the water warrior brought his weapon around and crashed it against the man's back to put him down. "Alright! I got one!" boasted Sokka as he gave a fist pump in success. He opened his eyes after his victory dance to notice the remaining five aim their weapons and their bending at him. "Oh, no…"

Sokka shut his eyes and weakly attempted to shield himself with his hands and his club as fire was shot at him and lances were thrusted in his direction. There was the sound of clashing metal and the smoldering of flames. Peeking open one eye slowly, Sokka saw Zuko standing before him, one hand gripping his broadsword that had three lances interlocked with it and the other hand smoking from the deflection of the flames. Not one to admit that he had really needed help; he got out, "Hey, I was handling it."

As he struggled against the weight of the three locked spears, Zuko smirked. "Really now? That's an interesting guard you were using. What'd call it, the fetal position? Anyways, could use a little help here…"

"Tsk," grumbled Sokka. He drew his boomerang and chucked it at the three fire spearmen that were in a stalemate with Zuko. A single burst of fire from one of the enemy firebenders toasted the metal in the air. "Boomerang!" cried out Sokka in dismay. He charged at the offending firebender in revenge.

Zuko rolled his eyes at Sokka's unhelpful assist. With a calming breathe, he twisted his sword sharply and broke off all three lance heads. Without pausing he charged the middle spearman and jabbed the hilt of his weapon into the man's stomach. Pivoting quickly on one foot, his foot and fist connected with the heads of the other two spearmen with a spinning kick and a backhand respectively. All three soldiers collapsed, groaning in pain. He looked back at Sokka's fight.

The water warrior charged the firebender with his club geared for an overhead strike. Grinning, the firebender caught Sokka's weapon hand and threw the hapless teen over his shoulder. The Water Tribe boy hit the ground hard and out of pure luck, managed to roll out of the way of a follow-up fire strike. A series of fire blasts continued to be aimed at the young warrior as he clumsily moved to dodge. Several parts of his clothing were singed as the firebender continued to toy with him. Suddenly, his foot caught a patch of ice and he tripped back onto the ground. The firebender stood over Sokka in triumph as he powered up a final fire strike. Zuko rammed the hilt of his sword into the man's head to knock him unconscious.

"Quit goofing off," he reprimanded the Water Tribe warrior. He extended his arm and pulled his fellow teen back to his feet.

"What are you talking about? I had him right where I wanted him. You were the one who interfered with my fight," countered Sokka.

Zuko was about to retort when all of a sudden, one of the lifeboats exploded in a ball of flame and the two warriors were thrown to the ground. "Shit!" yelled Zuko as he sprang back up to his feet and charged the last firebender that they had neglected. He scorched the man with a fireball just at the enemy caused the engine of the second lifeboat to explode. "Time to go Sokka!" urged Zuko as he leapt onto the third lifeboat. "There's no way that the warships didn't hear those explosions and the smoke is kind of a dead giveaway."

As the Water Tribe warrior boarded the craft, Zuko fired up the engine and they took off. "Not good," cursed the fire prince. "This is why I was hoping to get a ways away before detonating the other lifeboats."

"What's wrong?" questioned Sokka as he looked at the engine with a calculating glance.

Zuko pointed to the side. "Some shrapnel from the explosions damaged the side of the furnace. Our top speed just effectively got cut in half."

Over at the village, Zhao and his men heard the two explosions go off just outside the village and saw the two pillars of smoke rising from the frozen ground. The search teams had been organized but had not yet been sent out. "There they are," he noted. "Troops! Back to the ships! Our enemy is attempting to flee!" The Fire Nation soldiers returned to their ships leaving a smoldering shell of a village behind them.

Zuko and Sokka had attempted to use the ice patches and the ice bergs to dodge and evade the enemy warships, but it was a moot point. Without any real speed, the three warships surrounded them in a triangle formation and blocked off any escape routes.

The two warriors were dragged onto the flagship and forced to kneel with their arms bound before Commander Zhao. "Well, well, well," grinned Zhao. "Here I thought I had captured some simple water savages, when instead I manage to net a traitorous prince."

Noticing the off-step to Zhao's walk as he came closer, Zuko smirked. "Nice limp." He was rewarded with one of the guards behind him kicking him in the back harshly at Zhao's command.

"I was informed that you had turned traitor," Zhao continued to taunt. "That ridiculous costume you're wearing only proves that point."

"Hey!" defended Sokka. "These are traditional warrior uniforms!" A different guard kicked Sokka in the back this time.

"What do you mean traitor?" questioned Zuko despite already knowing that that was his father's doing. He struggled against his bonds to no avail.

"According to the official reports, you divided your crew with traitorous ambition and sided with the water savages to turn traitor against your own country. Those that stood with you are already in custody," replied Zhao smugly as he waved his hand dismissively. "All the civilian population is calling for your head. You see Zuko, out here in the middle of nowhere; it's the victor who gets to write reality. I've been tasked with dragging you back to face trial in the Fire Court. Your fate's already been determined of course, but with a public execution of the traitorous prince, then more favor will rally to the Firelord and naturally that favor will boost the representation of the one who captured you. This of course, would be me. Looks like a promotion will be in order soon, which I shall graciously accept."

Zuko spit at his captor. "Go to hell you swine."

Chuckling lightly as he wiped the spit off of his face, Zhao turned his face to look off to the side as if to give an order to his men when he suddenly lashed out with a strong right cross to Zuko's face. "Cheeky little brat. By the way, what happened to your uncle? Is he still out hiding among the ice? Or did he perish during your feeble escape?"

Zuko's face tightened as his glance broke from Zhao's. "He's dead. He took a javelin in the stomach to save me," the fire prince whispered out.

"Ha!" laughed Zhao. "The great Dragon of the West threw his life away to protect a worthless prince such as you. I always knew that the man was losing his greatness in his old age."

Zuko attempted to jump at Zhao despite his bonds, but the guards pulled him back. "Oh, am I upsetting you?" taunted Zhao. The young fire prince blew steam out of his nostrils. "Good." With another punch, he knocked the young firebender unconscious. "Take them both down to the cells and lock them up," he ordered his guards. Both a silent Sokka and an comatose Zuko were unceremoniously dragged down into the darkness of the flag ship belly.

* * *

Katara stood on top of a snow dune along with Iroh and Gran Gran as they watched the barrage of catapult artillery pound mercilessly into their village. Her eyes swelled with tears at the lost of her childhood home, but her thoughts were on her brother and the exiled fire prince. They were both down there in that hell dodging burning rocks. She looked at Iroh. His face was tense as he watched the scene unfold as well. Gran Gran's eyes were slowly tearing up as well.

As the barrage stopped and they watched the warships beach themselves, she whispered, "They're going to be alright, right?" Waves of figures appeared to rush down from the ramps.

"I'm sure they will be," answered Iroh after a couple of seconds. "My nephew is too stubborn to die and he'll keep an eye on your brother as well." Gran Gran nodded once in agreement.

The village remained unchanged ever since the Fire Nation stormed it. Several minutes later though, two plumes of smoke rose off next to the village. "That must be Zuko destroying the other two lifeboats," noted Iroh from his vantage point. The trio watched as the soldiers in the village rushed back to their ships and began to pursue a small craft that was already sailing away from the South Pole.

"There's the signal for us to go," stated Gran Gran as she wiped away her eyes and gave her village one last look before turning to head back into the cove and gather everyone to board the evacuation ships.

Katara turned to follow when she noticed Iroh still staring intensity at the scene before them. "Is something wrong?" she questioned with concern.

The old General relaxed his serious face and sighed. "No, nothing's the matter. I was only offering a quick prayer for our young warriors on their escape. I'm sure that they'll be waiting for us in Kyoshi Village." He glanced back once more before heading back to the cove as well, leaving Katara standing on the snow dune by herself.

She turned to look back at the fleeing lifeboat that held her brother and the exiled fire prince. '_Please make it safely to Kyoshi Village_,' she prayed.

Iroh was silent as he walked down the snow dune. The lifeboat wasn't moving as fast as it could have been. It must have been damaged somehow. And if that was the case, then there was no doubt that Zhao's forces would be able to catch up despite the head start that his nephew had. He could only hope that either his nephew or the Water Tribe boy would be able to find a way out of this predicament.

* * *

A day and a half passed. Both Sokka and Zuko had been tossed into the same cell with no windows. A lone metal door led out of the small room. Only two thin meals of a watery soup and a stale piece of bread had come and were the only two times that the door had been opened since they were tossed in.

"This isn't good!" stressed Sokka as he paced back and forth in the cell. "I'm too young to die! There's still so many things that I have left to do! There's still so much meat that I haven't eaten!" He threw up his arms in frustration and kicked the wall. "I haven't even kissed a girl yet!" The room fell silent at this confession. He turned to Zuko, who was casually sitting next to the metal door. "That will never be mentioned ever again."

Zuko grinned. "Embarrassed? What's the matter? Too busy picking fights with penguins to talk to a girl?"

"There's just not any in my particular village," defended Sokka. "What about you then Mr. Big Shot? Girls must throw themselves at a prince. You kissed one yet?"

Turning his head to the side, he quietly muttered out, "No…"

This time it was Sokka's turn to grin. "So the big, bad Fire Nation prince hasn't kissed a girl either. What's your excuse? Can't decide who to choose?"

"I'm been chasing the Avatar for the last three years. Hasn't exactly been on my to-do-list," defended Zuko.

The two glared at each other, until they both sighed and said at the same time, "Man, we're pathetic…"

Unexpectedly, Zuko heard voices talking outside of the cell and motioned to Sokka to be quiet.

"Yeah, we'll be reaching the southern part of the Earth Kingdom shortly," said one of the voices.

"Finally," voiced another. "I've never liked sailing. I can't wait until we port again."

The two guard starting discussing other topics, but Zuko had heard what he needed. He walked away from the metal door. "We'll be within sight of land soon," he provided. "Time to get out of here."

"Really now?" mocked Sokka sarcastically. "And how in La's name do you intend we do that? If you haven't noticed, we're kinda struck in a metal cell."

"Simple," smirked Zuko. As he whispered his plan to Sokka, the Water Tribe boy nodded and grinned in approval.

Minutes later the guards outside heard the Water Tribe boy yell inside the cell, "Damnit! It's your fault that I'm going to get killed by these Fire Nation rejects! Don't think that I'll let the Firelord have the honor of killing you! I'll do it myself right now!" Banging noises and the sounds of struggling erupted in the cell. The guards looked at each other before opening the eye slider in the door and glancing inside in time to see the Water Tribe boy slam a figure into the back wall away from the door and obstruct the view as he knelt before the slummed figure with a raised fist.

The guards rushed to open the door and charge inside to stop the water warrior. Zhao would kill them if they let a simple water savage kill the traitorous prince. Their commander was suppose to give that honor to the Firelord himself. Throwing open the door, both guards stepped inside. One of the guard grabbed Sokka by the shoulder and flung him against a side wall. Looking down on the figure the boy was pounding away at, the guard's eyes widened. It was just the two bed mats rolled up vertically.

"Gotcha," whispered Zuko as he stepped out from behind the opened door and laid the second guard out flat with a punch to the face. Sokka jumped onto the back of the first guard when the man spun around to face Zuko. He proceeded to give the man a Wet Willy and the guard looked disgusted before Zuko delivered an uppercut to knock this guard out as well. As Sokka leapt off the falling guard, Zuko just looked at him. "We need to work on your fighting ability."

"What? How come?" defended Sokka as Zuko took the broadswords from both of the guards and tossed one to Sokka, who fumbled with the weapon several times before his caught it. Zuko shook his head at this. "That's why…" he grumbled as he checked the guards for anything else that might be useful. Just a couple of fire credits and a ring of keys that he pocketed.

Checking the hallway to be clear, they locked the two unconscious guards in the cell and took off down the hallway. Sokka had been conscious during the time they were tossed in the cell, so he took the lead. "If I recall correctly, this room leads to the lifeboats," he stated as he threw open the door with reckless abandon. Two Komodo rhinos locked eyes with the Water Tribe warrior and snorted loudly before charging. "Not it!" he exclaimed as he shut the door quickly and jumped back as the two rhinos bent the metal wall outward with their ramming charge.

"Moron," grumbled Zuko as he carefully opened the next door in the hallway. Inside was a docking station for the extra crew lifeboats. He motioned for Sokka to follow as he slipped inside. Boarding a lifeboat, he began to lower the ropes to ease the craft overboard and into the sea. Sokka jumped onboard holding a long fuse.

"What's that for?" questioned Zuko sharply as Sokka struck a match and lit the fuse. Both of the teens watched the burning fuse track back up the warship.

"Just the fuse for a little blasting jelly that I found stored in the corner of the room," answered Sokka. "My little parting gift for the destruction of my village. By the way you might want to fire up that engine and get us out of here." The fuse had almost tracked back up into the ship.

"Maybe there's hope for you as a warrior after all," congratulated Zuko as the lifeboat started to propel itself towards the shoreline.

Thirty seconds later a large explosion blew a gaping hole into the side of the warship to stagger the craft. Sokka looked back at the black smoke rising from the Fire Nation vessel with a satisfied grin on his face while Zuko noticed the Southern Air Temple of the Patola Mountain Range rising in the distance as they drew closer to the shore.

* * *

"Urgh!" shouted Katara in frustration as she dropped the water she was trying to bend back into the sea. The winds had been favorable and Iroh had estimated that it would only be another day until they reached Kyoshi if the winds held. Being stuck on the small ship with nothing to do was getting to her. The young Water Tribe girl had been attempting to practice her waterbending to get her mind off her brother and the exiled prince. She had to shallow her pride after Zuko soundly defeated her and relent in her desire to go with them. For the longest time, she had been a headstrong girl and being forced to sit out a fight really upset her. Especially since if her waterbending had been better, then maybe she could have helped them.

However, even manipulating the water to move exactly like she wanted it to was difficult and her lack of concentration wasn't helping matters either. "Want some tips?" piped up Iroh from behind her.

"Huh?" she asked unintelligently as she turned to face the old General. "But you're not a waterbender…"

Iroh chuckled lightly as he stepped next to Katara's side. "That may be; however, all the elements are linked child. It is best when each element can learn from each other to create something new. Most people think that each of the elements are separate and divided. But they shine best when working together to boost their strengths and cover their weaknesses."

"But I can't even handle my own element," protested Katara. "How can I work with the other elements if my own form is off?"

"I have learned a thing or two of waterbending from the waterbenders of my youth," grinned Iroh. "Perhaps you would like to hear about that instead?"

Eagerly nodding, Katara listened to Iroh's every word with rapt attention as he explained the basics of waterbending to her. The same waterbending basics that his old friend Pakku had explained to him when he was developing his lightning redirection technique many years ago.


	4. Ch4 Unlikely Saviors

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Avatar the Last Airbender.

A/N: Please enjoy the story and please review!

* * *

**Unlikely Saviors**

Reaching the southern shoreline, Sokka and Zuko scanned the treacherous mountain terrain for a place to dock their ship. Zhao's flagship was still flooding black smoke into the sky from the blasting jelly that Sokka ignited. One of the other two ships had positioned itself to take on the crew from the damaged ship while the last remaining ship began to give chase to the fleeing lifeboat.

The two young warriors managed to find a small outcropping in the rocky landscape that made a natural port for their ship to anchor in. "Hurry up! We've got to get as far inland as possible before they catch up!" urged Sokka as he leapt off board.

Zuko, on the other hand, was fumbling with a piece of equipment underneath the seats. After a few seconds he managed to pull the compartment under the bench free and tossed a backpack at Sokka while donning another one himself. "What's this?" questioned the Water Tribe warrior as he secured the backpack on his shoulders.

Hopping out of the lifeboat as well, Zuko answered, "Emergency supplies. Every lifeboat has some provisions and equipment stored for every kind of emergency situation."

"Provisions?" queried Sokka as he pulled the backpack off his shoulders and was about to open it. Zuko knocked his hand away before he could open the bag and begin to rummage through the contents.

"Mind waiting until we're not running for our lives to look for food?" reprimanded the fire prince harshly.

"Ah, but I'm hungry now!" whined Sokka. A fire rock catapult shot crashed into the side of the mountain several feet away from where they had ported their ship. Debris and boulder fragments exploded all over the place. "But on the other hand…Time to go!"

Both the young warriors began to race up the side of the mountain as artillery rounds continued to rain down around them. "I thought that they were supposed to capture you and take you back to face trial! Why are they bombarding us with giant flaming rocks!" shouted Sokka as a catapult shot collided with the platform he was just standing on moments ago.

"Maybe they changed their minds!" shot back Zuko as he dodged another bulky artillery round. "Either that or Zhao is pissed about what we did to his ship and isn't thinking clearly right now!" He noticed a small crevice in the side of the mountain. "There!" Disappearing into the side of the mountain, Zuko paused within the dark cavern.

Sokka was quick to follow right behind him. "It's dark in here!" came the declaration of the obvious. Zuko ignited a small flame in his palm. "Oh, well that helps… Which way?"

The cavern broke off in two different directions. Both ways looked identical; rocky, dark, and uninviting. "I don't know. Just pick one," answered the fire prince.

"Then let's go right!" proclaimed Sokka as he led the way down the path.

Shrugging, Zuko followed him. "Any particular reason for this route?"

"Because it's the most correct path," answered the Water Tribe boy.

"What?" replied Zuko a bit confused by the answer.

"Because it's right! Get it? The right path is to the right! It can't be wrong!" laughed Sokka in amusement to his own little joke.

The young fire prince slapped his forehead with the hand not powering the lantern flame. "You don't get to make decisions anymore…"

"Ah come on! You've got to learn to lighten up!" protested Sokka. The shelling from the Fire Nation catapults had fallen silent shortly after the two had entered the cavern and they continued down the dark path in silence for a while.

The tunnel was wide enough for about eight people to walk shoulder-to-shoulder without too much trouble and was easily triple the height of either of the two boys. There was no light after they left the entrance save for the lantern flame that Zuko kept up in the palm of his hand. It felt as if they had been walking uphill the entire time without pause, but it was difficult to know for sure in the constant darkness. A few times, they could have sworn that a critter native to the cavern dashed across their path, but it was always just outside of their sight range. Both teens had drawn their pilfered broadswords in defense as they continued to walk.

They didn't hear any pursuit coming up from behind them, but Zuko knew that Zhao wouldn't just let them escape that easily. He would be coming after them soon. They needed to get out of this tunnel and figure out exactly where they were.

Another few hours passed and the scenery remained the same; just the same earthen tunnel that they had been trekking through for the better part of the day. "Urgh! How much further?" complained Sokka as he continued to drag his feet forward. He was met with silence from his companion. He sighed in exhaustion. After about the fourth time of asking that same question about two hours ago, Zuko had just stopped talking to him entirely.

Both of the teens had had enough of the dark cavern but it was hard to judge just how far it actually stretched. "I wonder if Katara, Gran Gran, and the rest of the villagers got to Kyoshi safely."

"I'm sure that everyone made it there," replied Zuko.

Sokka straightened up from his slouched over walking position. "Oh yeah? Not that I hope you're wrong or anything, but how can you be so sure?"

Zuko looked over his shoulder with an annoyed expression. "Did you see anyone else taken prisoner besides us on Zhao's ship?" Sokka raise his finger as if to make a point, then paused and the answer hit him. "You didn't did you. That's because after we were captured, Zhao sailed away like we thought he would. With my uncle there guiding them, I'm sure that everyone made it to Kyoshi."

"Oh," answered Sokka intelligently. A couple of seconds passed. "So how much further?" Silence.

Another half hour passed before the teens reached the end of the tunnel, which was a dead end. "You've got to be kidding me," muttered Zuko as he felt around the rock wall that was blocking the passage from progressing any further.

Sokka was also feeling around the wall hoping to find another path. "I guess the right path was actually the wrong path."

"Enough with you're stupid puns!" demanded Zuko angrily. He turned to face the wall. "Zhao's going to catch us now and it's all this stupid wall's fault!" He powered up a strong fire fist and punched the wall in frustration. Nothing happened. Zuko slumped to the ground and leaned against the wall. "There's got to be something else." He began to rack his brain to figure out a way to get out of this mess.

A couple of the small rocks shifted and fell after Zuko's punch. Sokka noticed the flame in the fire prince's palm flicker a couple of times. He stared at the flame for a while as his companion remained silently brooding. Then it dawned on him. "That's it!"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Zuko stared at the Water Tribe warrior. "What's it? What are you talking about?" Sokka pointed at the flame in the fire prince's hand excitedly and Zuko just stared at his palm for a couple of seconds. Then it dawned on him as well and he grinned.

Jumping up and spinning to face the wall, he powered up an extremely strong flame in his hands and crushed it as hard as he could into the wall. The barrier shook a little and a couple more rocks shifted out of place but that was about it. However, the strength of wind increased slightly and was more noticeable now. This was enough to motivate both of the boys though. The young water warrior and the young fire prince began to pull rocks away from the wall and chuck all the loose stones aside as they attempted to make it easier to take the wall down.

"Back up again!" shouted Zuko. "I think this is good enough." Jumping back and centering himself, the young prince readied another ball of flame in his fist and connected his attack against the unwavering wall. The entire cavern shook and even more rocks were blown aside, but a hole had yet to appear. "Argh! You stupid wall! Just crumble already!" demanded a frustrated Zuko.

"Try it just one more time," suggested Sokka as he analyzed the wall with a calculating eye. "I think that we're closer to breaking through than you think."

Zuko took a few minutes to calm himself like his uncle had taught him. Breath in, breath out. Feel the force of your breathing strengthening the flames, increasing the intensity of the fire. Finding his center, the prince's eyes shot open and he performed a solid stepping side kick that unleashed a pressurized jet stream of fire at the wall.

The entire cavern shook again, except this time it was a lot more noticeable. The heat from the flames drove the temperature to an almost unbearable level and everything in the dark tunnel lit up in perfect view. As the attack finished, Zuko dropped to his knees breathing heavily. "There, that had to have worked." He glanced at the wall and frowned. There was an opening alright, it was just a lot smaller than he imagined it would be. He doubted that he would even be able to crawl through it if he tried.

"Perfect!" exclaimed the young Water Tribe warrior as he rushed to the crumbling rock wall and started to toss stones aside to make the opening bigger.

"What do you mean?" growled back Zuko. "That opening is tiny! I just hit it with one of the strong heat blazes I've ever made and that tiny hole is all I've got to show for it!"

Sokka took a moment to pause and shrug his shoulders. "At least we can get through now!" Tossing one last rock aside, the water warrior took off his backpack and tossed it through the opening before he wiggled his way through.

'_Azula would have been able to blast away the entire wall on the first try…_' Zuko mentally told himself as he tossed his own backpack through the hole and followed behind it.

"It feels good to be under the sky again!" declared Sokka happily as he stretched outside of the cavern. The stars of the evening sky greeted him from their positions in the dark heavens. "Guess we should probably set up camp for the night somewhere." The water warrior darted all over the place as Zuko crawled out of the cavern and collected himself.

"Up here!" greeted Sokka from a ridge that was a stone's throw away from the cavern entrance. A few sparse trees littered the rocky landscape. It appeared that the cavern exited on the other side of the initial mountain that they had crawled into from the sea side of the peak. Dozens more mountains littered the area as the Patola Mountain Range continued all around them. Travel in this harsh terrain was not going to be easy, but hopefully they could use that to their advantage as they attempted to shake any pursuit.

Climbing the ridge to join his companion, Zuko noticed that Sokka had already started to dig into his backpack and was throwing its content's all over the place in his search for "FOOD!" exclaimed Sokka gleefully as he pulled out some emergency rations. He dug in immediately.

"Most people can't stand the taste of military rations," commented Zuko.

"You say something?" asked Sokka as he dug into his third can of food.

"Never mind," replied Zuko as he pulled a compressed sleeping mat out from the bottom of his backpack. Then, he pulled out his own can of rations and began to eat as well. It tasted horrible. '_How is he eating this stuff so easily_?' pondered Zuko as he forced another bite. He needed to eat otherwise further travel was going to be difficult. Leaning against a tree, he continued to eat his meal while he stared up at the night sky.

Rummaging sounds to his right caused him to look to his side and notice Sokka grabbing two ration cans from his backpack. "Hey!" A fireball struck the ground in front of the Water Tribe boy, who jumped back but kept a hold of the food. "What'd think you're doing?" He noticed that empty cans that littered the area around Sokka's pack. "You ate eight cans of this stuff already?"

"Hey, I was hungry," defended Sokka.

Zuko looked at the off-gray colored food paste in his own ration can. He wasn't even sure if he was going to finish this one, let alone even bother with his other cans unless he was on the verge of starving. "Fine, take those two, but leave the rest of my stuff alone."

Sokka retreated back to his corner of the ridge contentedly as he dug into his two newly acquired cans of food paste. Zuko finished his dinner and gathered the contents of his pack together again. Laying down on his sleeping mat, he stated, "Clean up your mess before you go to sleep."

Grumbling something about overbearing firebenders, Sokka gathered all the gear that he had tossed all over the place in his search for food. Climbing one of the few trees on the ridge, he had to reach far into the branches to get to his rolled up sleeping mat. Grabbing the mat, he heard the sound of the branch breaking and let out a cry before he hit the unforgiving ground. Zuko merely rolled over in his sleep. Now grumbling about uncaring firebenders, Sokka spread out his sleeping mat and drifted off to sleep as well.

* * *

"Yes, just like that," encouraged Iroh as he oversaw Katara's waterbending practice. The sun was slowly beginning to set on the horizon. Night would come in less than an hour.

The young waterbender moved a stream of water through the air with little difficultly as she flickered out her wrist and the water flashed forward before immediately returning to her. The result was the sound of a whip snapping on the calm waters of the sea. "I did!" cheered Katara as she had finally managed to get the water whip move that Iroh had began instructing her in right.

"Excellent work," congratulated the old General. "However, that's about as much as I can teach you, young one. My waterbending knowledge only goes as far as the basic motions, that one move, and some theory."

"But how did you learn the water whip in the first place?" questioned Katara earnestly.

Iroh rubbed the back of his head and he thought back to all the practice sessions that he and Pakku went through during his lightning redirection training. Pakku never formally showed him the move, but after being on the receiving end many times for messing up the basics, he eventually caught on. "Oh, just here and there…" he replied nonchalantly.

Katara raised an eyebrow at the answer. "I never would have imagined a firebender, let alone a famous general and brother to the Firelord, would have taken the time to learn waterbending basics from a waterbender. Did you torture the benders into teaching you?"

'_Torture? If anything, I was the one being tortured during my lightning redirection training…_' mused Iroh as he continued to rub the back of his head. "Believe it or not, I'm actually on good terms with a few waterbenders. Some earthbenders too, I might add."

"Right…" answered Katara still not completely convinced. However, before she could press further, Iroh stood up and exclaimed, "There it is! Kyoshi Island! We're here!"

Everyone in the boat and in the neighboring boat immediately turned their heads in the direction that Iroh was pointing to see the distant form of land rising in the distance. Cheers of excitement rose amongst everyone and Katara decided that she would continue this conversation with Iroh later.

The sun had just set when the Water Tribe ship settled into the Kyoshi port. An elderly looking gentleman and a small group of girls wearing battle dresses stood waiting for the ships to port. "Greetings friend!" hailed Iroh as the ships pulled into the harbor.

"That remains to be seen," answered the elderly gentleman. "Who are you and why have you arrived at Kyoshi village with so many people?"

"A fair question," replied the old General. "My name is Iroh, and as to why we are here; I believe that it would be more appropriate for this young lady here to tell you about the situation." Iroh had debated the use of an alias, but decided that it could potentially cause misunderstandings as to why he hid his real name when the little kids of the Water Tribe called him uncle Iroh, which they had grown accustomed too after all the storytelling he had been doing.

Katara was slightly confused at the young lady comment. She had thought that her grandmother was going to be the one to talk about the fate of lost village, but she assumed that Iroh thought that she would be a better figurehead apparently. She made to speak when she was suddenly cut off by her Gran Gran. A small blush of embarrassment came to her face as she realized that Iroh had been politely referring to her grandmother in terms of their age. Only a few of the warrior girls seemed to notice her error.

"Our village in the South Pole has been attacked and completely destroyed by the Fire Nation," stated Gran Gran with a hint of anger in her voice. "We fled and have nowhere else to go. We came here in hopes that you would take us in as refugees. Our men folk are off at war and we are only women and children."

The elderly gentleman's face softened at the tale and his honor guard seemed to be sympathetic to the plight of the Southern Water Tribe. "If you can aid with the farm work and the harvesting, then you may stay. We can set to building cabins to house all of you tomorrow. Tonight, you all can stay with the families here in the village. I am Chief Oyaji by the way. I apologize for my initial hostility. These are troubling times."

"Thank you, Chief Oyaji," thanked Gran Gran. "I am Kanna of the Southern Water Tribe. My son Hakoda is the chief of our village, but his is with our men folk fighting in the war. They still do not know what has befallen our village."

"I understand," replied Oyaji. He turned to the warrior girls standing next to him. "Suki! Have your girls assist the Water Tribe villagers in finding places to stay tonight in town. Since it is late, I will announce the situation to everyone in the morning. I'm sure that the town will all pitch in to help."

Suki began to direct the Water Tribe villagers into Kyoshi village as her fellow warriors saw to finding families that would house some of the refugees for the night. Katara tapped the girl on the shoulder. "Excuse me, but have two boys arrived here yet? Sokka's my brother and Zuko helped us to distract the Fire Nation so that we could get away."

Shaking her head, Suki answered, "I'm sorry, but you all are the first ones to arrive at this village in quite some time."

Katara's heart sank. She had been hoping that her brother and the fire prince would have gotten here first. Maybe they were just a day or two behind? Maybe they had ran into trouble? Or maybe they had been captured? She should have gone with them. She shouldn't have been so accepting in just letting them go alone. Now here she was at the destination, and completely unaware about how they were doing. And she felt terrible. A gentle hand found its way to her shoulder.

"I'm sure that they are just fine," reassured Suki with a smile.

Katara nodded in return. '_I will not be left behind ever again_,' she vowed to herself.

* * *

As usual, Zuko woke up with the sun as it rose over the mountain peaks. He scanned his surroundings and raised an amused eyebrow at Sokka, who was hugging his backpack in his sleep. He got up and stretched lightly before shaking the young water warrior awake. "Hey! Time to get up!"

"Five more minutes," grumbled Sokka as he turned over in his sleep. Zuko shook the boy again. "Hey, we don't know how far behind Zhao is behind us. We've got to cover as much distance as possible."

"Fine," reluctantly answered Sokka as he managed to stir and gather his stuff together. Suddenly a loud explosion ripped through the mountain range and both teens hit the ground as they crawled to the edge of the ridge that they had camped on for the evening.

The cavern entrance that they had crawled through last night had just been blown open by a keg of blasting jelly and three Komodo rhinos had just emerged through the now enlarged opening, flanked by a small platoon of soldiers and firebenders. Smoke was still rising from the blast.

"Spread out and search the area!" commanded Zhao from atop his rhino. "They couldn't have gotten too far on foot!"

"Not good," whispered Zuko as he scanned the area for an escape route. Sokka was already crawling to the far side of the ridge. "Where are you going?"

The Water Tribe boy waved his companion over to his position. An old goat trail was slightly hidden by the side of the mountain. "I found this while scouting the area last night. Figured it could make a good backdoor in case something like this happened." Both teens quickly made their escape down the trail.

After running down the path for several minutes, Sokka voiced the question, "I wonder where this thing leads?"

They reached the end of the small mountain trail. "I think we just found out," replied Zuko.

"What's that?" Sokka was staring at a large decrepit structure on top one of the mountain peaks. The structure seemed to be built out of the mountain instead of simply on top of it actually. However, there were parts that were crumbling apart and looked like they had been destroyed a long time ago. Only a few of the large towers that once stood in a grand appearance seemed to still be standing.

"The Southern Air Temple," answered Zuko as the two young warriors continued to the front gates. "It was destroyed early on in the war when the Fire Nation wiped out the airbenders. It had been rumored to only be accessible by air, but by using the network of tunnels here in the mountain range, the Fire Nation found a way to storm it from the ground. I've been here once before searching for clues on the Avatar's location."

"Lucky for the world you never found any," grinned Sokka. Zuko gave a 'humph' in response. "Anyway, do you think it would be a good place for us to lay low for a while?"

"With the amount of soldiers littering the area right now, it's probably our best bet to find a place to hide until they give up and move on," answered Zuko. One of the two large stone gate doors had been completely blown open and was lying on the ground to the side of the entrance. The boys walked into the temple warily. There was no telling what kind of mountain critters might have taken up residence in the now deserted structure.

A statue of a monk greeted them in the main courtyard. "Any idea who this is?" asked Sokka as he inspected the sculpture.

"Probably some important leader for the airbenders," replied Zuko. "Look I don't really know too much about these people. Most of their history and knowledge was lost in the war, not that Fire Nation schools would really teach any of it anyways. What I do know, is from what my uncle taught me during my journey."

A glint of metal caught the prince's eye and he was immediately on guard. Approaching the location of interest slowly, he sighed and replaced his weapon on his belt. "What is it?" inquired the water warrior from behind him. "Whoa…" Dozens of skeletons of stretched before them in the corner of the courtyard covered with leaves and dirt. Some still wore the tarnished Fire Nation armor from ages past.

"This place was a battlefield. Some people never got a proper funeral I suppose," stated Zuko remorsefully. Despite the evils his people committed by attacking this temple, they still deserved to be cremated properly and the airbenders should have been buried, or given whatever funeral that was theirs by tradition. That much should have only been natural.

"Then let's give them one right now," provided Sokka as he moved forward.

The young fire prince placed a hand on his companion's shoulder to stop him. "We don't have the time. The bodies of the Fire Nation should be cremated and the smoke will easily give our position away. And we don't ever know how the airbenders should be taken care of. Maybe when we have more time, we can do something."

Sokka shook the prince's hand off with a "Tsk." He turned back to the skeletons with heavy eyes. "This is the result of war isn't it? Lying in an unmarked grave on some battlefield."

"Far too often," answered Zuko as he recalled the battles that had affected him personally in the war. Lu Ten, his cousin and his uncle's son, had died during the six hundred day Siege of Ba Sing Se. His body was lying somewhere between the outer and the inner wall, probably covered up by the earth from some earthbenders if they had any respect for the dead. They had been unable to recover his cousin's body and give him a proper funeral. It had almost destroyed his uncle.

Suddenly a rustle in the nearby trees caught their attention and broke them out of the sense of gloom that had been overwhelming them. Sokka drew his broadsword and Zuko dropped into a bending stance. A small figure darted from one tree to another almost too quick to see. This process repeated several times until the boys where completely unsure which tree the creature was in.

Standing back to back, Sokka whispered, "I don't like this…"

Eyes still scanning the trees looking for a sign of movement, Zuko replied, "Just stay focused."

Without warning, the creature flew out from the trees and attached itself to Zuko's face. "What the…Urgh! Rmph! Ahh!" managed the prince as he attempted to peel the creature off of his face to no avail. Sokka's laughing wasn't helping matters any either.

Finally grasping the back neck fur of the creature, Zuko ripped it off of his face and held it away from him to get a better look at the creature. "It's a monkey-like thing…" he stated intelligently. The creature held out a nut to the prince with a smile, who just stared back at it dumbfounded. Sokka's laugher intensified to the point that he was rolling around on the ground in jubilation.

Zuko's anger finally appeared as he slapped the nut away and tossed the creature back into the trees. "What was that all about?"

"I think it likes you!" wheezed out Sokka in between laughs as he pointed behind Zuko. Spinning around, the fire prince noticed the monkey creature sitting a few feet away from him staring at him expectantly.

"What do you want?" demanded Zuko in a harsh tone. The critter threw a nut at the firebender, which hit him in the face, and scampered back off into the tree line. Zuko fired a stream of fire around the base of the trees to discourage the critter from messing with him again. Sokka still couldn't stop laughing at the whole situation.

"Man Zuko," managed Sokka in between chuckles. "You sure do have a way with animals."

Without a word, Zuko stormed off into the temple interior. Collecting himself, Sokka followed. The inside of the temple was impressive. Grand stone walls and pillars were decorated with elaborate murals depicting airbending feats, scenes of nature, and the local wildlife. There were signs of destruction inside as well, but the majestic beauty of the place was still awe-striking.

"Wow," commented Sokka as he took it all in. "I wonder how this place would have looked back before the war."

"Same as it does now, except without all the rumble," stated Zuko plainly, clearly not interested in the conversation topic.

Not deterred, Sokka continued to examine each part of the building as the two teens continued to walk down the huge hallway. They eventually came upon an intricate and complex looking door that was decorated with a large series of wind horns and pipes. "What's that?"

"It's a special airbender door," answered Zuko. "When I came here before, my crew found several of these doors scattered throughout the temple. Without airbending, it can't be opened. Even blasting jelly can't seem to crack it open for some reason. We have something similar to it in the fire temples; doors that can't be opened without the use of firebending. These doors must have been constructed long ago because no one seems to be able to explain why nothing short of their respective elements can open them."

"I wonder if there are some at the North Pole, because we didn't have any in the South Pole," speculated Sokka as he studied the door some more.

Shrugging, Zuko began to turn down another hallway when his companion exclaimed, "Whoa! It's opening!" Spinning around, the fire prince was surprised to see that it was indeed opening. He fell into a bending stance while Sokka drew his sword to prepare for whether might emerge from the door.

A gust of wind blew both of the boys backwards a bit. Rising back to their feet, they bore witness to a large bison stepping through the door. "But that can't be!" exclaimed Zuko. "These creatures are supposed to be extinct! They were all wiped out with the airbenders years ago!"

"Well apparently your ancestors missed a couple," snapped back Sokka as he sheathed his weapon and approached the creature slowly. "It's okay we're not going to hurt you." He looked back at his partner. "Well, I'm not going to hurt you."

The large adult sky bison bellowed in challenge and blew another gust of wind that sent the young Water Tribe boy flying backwards. Zuko noticed several more sky bison in the room behind it. "Sokka, I think that it is protecting the rest of its herd. Let's back away slowly." Both of the young warriors kept their focus on the alpha sky bison in front of them and slowly and cautiously backed around the corner that they had come from. The alpha stared them down the entire time, but never left the doorway it was standing in.

"We can't stay here anymore," stated Zuko as they retreated behind the corner of the hallway.

"Why not?" countered Sokka in confusion.

"Those creatures! They're sky bison! Animals that were supposed to have vanished when the airbenders were all defeated!" exclaimed Zuko as the gravity of the situation seemed to hit him. "If Zhao sees those animals, then he will kill them all in name of the Fire Nation and bring their pelts back as trophies!"

"As much as I'm with you on this," started Sokka, "why do you care so much about the bison? You didn't seem to want to help our village that much until you're uncle insisted on it. And you know these bison even less than you did us!"

Zuko thought back to the turtle-ducks in the courtyard pond that he and his mother always used to feed. Azula had probably done away with the helpless fouls by now since he hadn't been around to watch over them. He wouldn't admit this to anyone, but the fire prince had a soft spot for animals. Animals that didn't throw things at his forehead anyways. He had gotten it from the time he spent with his mother. Animal cruelty did not sit well with him. "No reason. It's just the right thing to do," he answered.

"Okay…" replied Sokka not entirely convinced, but he decided not to push the subject anymore. Looking back around the corner of the wall, they noticed that the bison had returned to the inside of the room and the door was shut once again.

The two warriors raced back the way they had come. They reached the entrance of the Southern Air Temple to find a platoon of soldiers led by Zhao approaching the front gates. "Well this isn't good." One of the soldiers noticed the two and started shouting out their location wildly.

"Back to the other side of the temple!" ordered Zuko as the three Komodo rhinos in the group started to charge at them.

Running through the hallways of the temple, the rhinos were quickly catching up to the boys. "Split up!" instructed Zuko at a fork in the hallways. Taking the right path, Zhao's rhino pursued him while the other two rhinos followed after Sokka down the left path.

The breathe of the Komodo rhino was getting closer and closer. Moments before he would have been trampled by the beast, Zuko dove into a nearby room and the mount rushed past. He rolled to his feet as the door burst open in flames and Zhao stared at him in victory. Sitting atop the might beast, Zhao shot a steady burst of fire at the young prince who darted across the room as the fire followed behind him. He dove behind a statue to avoid the flames. Moments later, a tail swipe from Zhao's mount shattered the rock figure into pieces and Zuko went flying across the room. The young fire prince returned the favor with several quick fireballs that Zhao deflected easily before rushing out of the room again.

"Run all you want," taunted Zhao. "You'll tire soon enough and then you will be all mine." The thrill of chasing down his prey was always the best part of the hunt.

"Not good! Not good! Not good!" shouted Sokka repeatedly as he raced down the hallway. One of the rhino riders readied a javelin to toss at the fleeing warrior. Just as he hurled the weapon, Sokka's foot caught an overturned floor stone and the water warrior went flying, narrowing dodging the tossed weapon. The rhinos rushed past and skidded as they turned around. Sokka rose back to his feet and began running the other way before he darted down a constricted hallway that was too small for the rhinos to follow.

Half of the platoon of soldiers caught up around this time. They followed the young Water Tribe boy. Sokka heard his extra pursuers give chase and turned back to look behind him. This caused him to not notice yet another overturned floor stone that caught his foot once again and threw him, except this time it was over the open faced edge of the building.

Reaching and flailing wildly with his arms, Sokka managed to grab a tree root that was sticking through the wall of the building. He looked down at the half mile drop that loomed below him and gulped as he grasped the tree root with his other hand as well. Suddenly he heard the voices of his pursuers above him.

"Dang, we lost track of him!"

"Well there's three different paths from here. Let's split up!"

Listening to the footsteps of the soldiers racing down three separate paths, Sokka slowly managed to pull himself back onto the ledge of the temple and breathed out in a sigh of relief at his near-death experience. Gathering his wits again, he returned down the original path he came from. The rhino riders had left looking for another way around. Sokka continued back towards where he and Zuko had originally split up.

Racing back down the way he had initially started from, Zuko was startled to see half a platoon of soldiers rushing at him. He jumped into another chamber that stemmed from the hallway and there at the far end of the room was something that he really did not want to see, a sky bison.

This one looked a little smaller than the adult alpha that had blasted him back with wind earlier. It must have wandered out of the airbending chamber at some point. "Go! Get out of here!" shouted Zuko wildly as he rushed at the creature who just stared back at him. Zhao blasted the doorway open with fire once again so that his mount could enter the grand room. The detachment of soldiers was right behind him.

"Oh, what's this?" mocked Zhao in delight. "This trip just keeps getting better and better. First a traitorous prince and now an extinct sky bison. With this, I might just bypass Colonel rank and jump straight to Admiral." He launched a fireball at the sky bison, which looked at the oncoming fire in shock and fear.

Zuko jumped in front of the bison to deflect the attack and remained standing defensively in front of it. "Leave it alone. It's me that you want." The bison appeared to be thankful for the young boy saving it right there.

"Naturally," countered Zhao as he stepped down from his Komodo rhino. "However, what kind of hunter would just pass up an opportunity such as this?"

"You're going to have to get through me first! I challenge you to an Agni Kai!" declared Zuko as he slipped into a bending stance.

"Gladly," boasted Zhao as he unclasped the red cape of his uniform and signaled his men to stand back for this fight. The two fighters stared each other down before Zuko's impatience caused him to make the first strike with a single powerful opening fireball.

Zhao blocked it without difficulty and countered with a several fire blasts launched from a front kick and a series of two follow-up punches. Zuko deflected the first two blasts but the third knocked him back a bit. The fire commander was quick to press his advantage with several sweeps of fire at the off-balanced boy. Ducking under the first couple fire sweeps, the fire prince leapt high over the ones that were adjusted to hit him lower. He dropped back down with a axe kick that ignited a vertical firewall that rushed at his opponent without mercy.

Zhao smirked as he positioned his arms in a point in from of him and split the attack in two as it neared with a releasing swing of his arms. Bringing them back together quickly, he released a ground wave of fire that was charging at the position in which Zuko was set to land. This resulted in the boy being swept off his feet and knocked to the ground. He was dazed for a few seconds as his head struck the ground.

Coming too, he realized that Zhao was standing over him with a triumphant smirk across his face and a fist posed at his fallen form. Defeat flashed across his own face as he noticed the sky bison out of the corner of his eye, who was staring at him expectantly. A second wind rushed through him. Without warning, his legs swept out around him and knocked Zhao onto his own back as Zuko landed back on his feet and positioned his fist over Zhao in a reverse of the situation.

"It's over," stated Zuko. "I won. You lost. Call off your men and leave this place. Return to your ships and do not pursue me ever again."

"You're going to have to finish this," countered Zhao smugly still. "I don't think that you have it in you." A fireball brushed closely against his face and the ground next to his head was scorched black. He could feel the sweat involuntarily break out on his face.

"Don't tempt me," answered Zuko coldly. "I detest killing a defeated opponent, but I will if you force me."

"Tsk," replied Zhao as he signaled his men to stand down.

Zuko began walking back to the sky bison to make sure that it was okay. Sokka chose this time to rush in from the entrance of the chamber. He took in the sky bison, the Fire Nation soldiers, and Zuko, but what immediately caught his attention was the large fireball that the commander was forming in his hands. "Watch out!" he shouted just a little too late.

The blast collided heavily into Zuko's back as he was blown against the side of the sky bison. "You dirty little cheat…" he forced out in pain.

Zhao rose to his feet and brushed the dust off of himself. "You're a traitor to the Fire Nation. It's not like I have to honor an Agni Kai to a traitor. You had lost from the start."

As the fire commander started to laugh, Sokka rushed to Zuko's side. "Hey, you okay?"

"What do you think?" answered Zuko sarcastically as he grunted in pain.

Zhao waved his men forward to take the two young warriors back into custody. Before anyone was able to move however, a small blur flew down from an open window and started clawing at Zhao's face.

"Ah! What's this!" demanded Zhao as he tried to swat whatever was attacking him away to no avail. The blur relented and landed onto of the bison's head chattering loudly and angrily at the fire commander.

"It's that monkey-thing that took a liking to you in the courtyard!" exclaimed Sokka in surprise.

"That's not how I remember it," returned Zuko as he managed to get back on his feet while leaning on Sokka for support.

"Get them!" ordered Zhao in a rage, claw mark scratches all over his face.

Before anyone could move however, a large gust of wind erupted from the sky bison and all the Fire Nation soldiers, including Zhao, were thrown back against the far corners of the room. Leaning down, the sky bison appeared to wait for the two boys.

"I think it wants us to get on," suggested Sokka.

"Fine by me," replied Zuko as he crawled onto the bison's back and grabbed a hold of the luscious white fur.

With both of the young warriors securely on its back, the sky bison slammed its tail heavily against the ground to unleash another wave of wind as it rose into the air and took off. Fireballs flew through the room as the Fire Nation soldiers attempted to bring the beast down, but a quick aerial spin and the bison was out of a hole in the damaged wall. Zhao let out a cry of frustration over the loss of his captives and his promotions that were flying away into the sky.

"This is awesome!" shouted Sokka as he felt the wind rush past him on the back of the sky bison.

"Yeah," agreed Zuko simply. The rocky mountain range was a sight to see from the sky.

"Thanks for the assist!" thanked Sokka as he patted the sky bison and stroked the creature's fur. The monkey critter leapt into his lap. "And thank you as well." He scratched the critter behind the ears gently. "So are we going to keep them?"

"What?" answered Zuko in surprise. "No, of course not. Once we reach Kyoshi, we'll release them and let them return here. Zhao won't waste time at the Southern Air Temple. He'll be after me again soon and the place should be safe for them again."

"Ah…" whined Sokka.

"Fine you keep them then!" countered Zuko. "I'm thankful for the help but if they follow me then they'll just be in danger again."

"How would you like to be part of the Southern Water Tribe?" Sokka asked to the monkey-like critter that was curled up in his lap. The animal seemed to nod its head in response happily, almost if it knew what the Water Tribe boy was saying.

"Tsk," replied Zuko as he watched Sokka continue to play with the little critter. '_I wonder if uncle will know that creature actually is_?'

They traveled in relative silence for a while as they all took in the glory of the landscape. As the sun started to set in the evening sky, Sokka noticed the fire lights of Kyoshi village. "Look, there it is! And there's the Water Tribe ships! They made it, alright!"

Zuko nodded as he patted the sky bison on the side to signal it to head into the village. Descending slowly, the weary two warriors felt relief that they had accomplished the mission that they had set out to do. They noticed several people standing around the village watching them approach and waving to them as they waved back.


End file.
